


Demighoul

by orphan_account



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: AU where Hide worked with Amon and Akira before Kaneki's torture by Jason, Multi, discontinued at vol. 14, discontinued before OCs could reach their most important parts, kinda an experiment, no happy ending, well now that it's over there goes my 14-chapter fic virginity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-15
Updated: 2015-06-25
Packaged: 2018-03-23 03:50:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 32,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3753400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"1000-7 is what?"</p><p>"Blue."</p><p>Wait, what?!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I | Missing

**S H E**

 

He blinked rapidly, squeezing his eyelids shut tight under the thin fabric in an attempt to block out reality. The tiled, blood-splattered floor ice beneath his feet, though it wasn't as though he could still feel it.

She was leaning over him once more, long strands of silky fuchsia hair brushing over his knees. A pale and delicate hand reached out, fingers cradling the side of his face as his breath came out in wispy pants.

_"Kaneki-kun."_

He jerked at the sound of her voice, attempting to escape the chair that was hardly more than a wooden stool held together by rusty nails. His arms strained against the chain that bit down into his wrists.

Her hands moved on, unwrapping the blindfold which covered his eyes with painstaking care.

_See no evil._

The thin piece of cloth slipped gradually away, disappearing somewhere within the depths of her crimson cloak. Her finger pads brushed against his face tenderly, featherweight, trailing over cheekbones and eyelids and the rise of his button nose.

A loud, audible snip filled the silence. A lock of dark black hair fell to the ground to mix with the ever-growing puddle of blood that streamed from the gaping holes where should have laid toes.

The hand which had previously cupped the left side of his head fell, grasping instead his chin. She tilted his head up, watching his long eyelashes flutter as he blinked a pair of hazel-grey eyes open to gaze upon his torturer.

"Say my name."

Her voice was airy, and she spoke almost as though out of breath.

He remained silent. Her eyes narrowed, mist flowing into the open space of the chamber like a thick and soupy fog.

Slowly, she raised a pair of old pair of shears, rusted almost as much as the nails that kept the rick rackety chair from falling apart. Her other hand shifted from his chin, sliding once more towards his left eye. Fear flooded into the cloud that had become of his mind, momentarily shining a beam of certain will and reason through the chaos.

_No._

He jammed the two close again, whimpering at the mere thought of what was undoubtedly to come.

_No, nononononono--_

Her fingers bore between the lids, prying them open. They dug around the ball of his eye, wriggling and curving as freshly-polished white nails burrowed through nerve and tissue.

He threw his head back, an ear-splitting scream forcing its way up from his throat. The pain was excruciating, searing of agony shaking his form.

A glaring red eye popped out with a sickening  _slurch_ , landing on the black pants that covered his thighs. He stared down at it, mind blank in his state of horrified incomprehension.

Liquid, red and thick and soupy, spilled from the fresh hollow in his face.

"Say my name."

He turned his head up to face her slowly, remaining eye fixated on her mask.

It was chalky white, almost clinical in its cleanliness. A parody of an Italian half mask, with swirly golden outlines of feathers tracing the left eye as though to mock him. Stringy ribbon the colors of sunset fell from each corner like water cascading down a fall, and if he didn't focus on each strand in specific, he could actually  _see_ them moving. 

The cloak concealed everything else except her height, which he estimated to be just a tad shorter than Rize. Her hands were small, her skin eerily glowing in the dim lighting.

She giggled softly to herself as she backed away, feet tapping erratically against the checkerboard floor. He watched as she brought the sheers up to his eye, tipping her head back as she held it over pastel pink cupid's bow lips. She smirked, popping it with the razor blades like a deviled egg. Her tongue flicked out, catching the remains and pulling them into the moist cavern of her mouth.

"I've always wondered what the eyes of a half-ghoul taste like."

 

 

**C O F F E E  W I T H  C A L E O**

 

 

"You do like coffee, right?" Leo questioned as he and Calypso stepped out of the sweltering heat and into the nice, cool air of the coffeeshop otherwise known as 'Anteiku'.

Upon entrance they were greeted by a waitress with short, purple hair that seemed to have been dyed so recently and perfectly it appeared completely natural. She gave them both a smile Leo knew all too well—-the "pretend it's all okay" smile.

"あなたは何をしたい？" ("What would you like?")

"ああ、これはどう？" ("Ah, how about this?") Calypso answered in perfect Japanese, pointing to something written on the menu.

"あなたも？" (And you?") the waitress asked, turning to Leo.

Leo blinked self-consciously, unable to understand a word. Luckily, Calypso was there to save him.

"申し訳ありませんが、彼は英語のみとギリシャを話す." ("Sorry, he only speaks English and Greek.")

"Oh!" the waitress gasped, a blush painting her cheeks a light shade of red, raising a hand to her chin in embarrassment. Fake embarrassment, but embarrassment nonetheless.

"Sorry, where are my manners? Would you like a latte, espresso..." she trailed off into a long list of various forms of coffee served while he could only sit there, trying to keep up.

"Uh," he interrupted when he was certain she had named off around 50 options, "how about the second one?"

She nodded and scribbled something down on her notepad, turning and walking back to yell something Calypso translated as "Oi, shitty Nishiki!"

 

 

 **T E X T I N G** **F T.  T O U R I K O**

 

 

Kirishima Touka's week had been horrible. It all started when Yoriko got sick. Following that, her Asian History grade decided to take an abrupt and honestly quite massive drop. Then, at the end of the week, two psychopaths, believed to be Jason from the 13th Ward and some random pink haired bitch, decided to break in kidnap Kaneki. Her little brother fucking helped them! Oh, and then there was that guy in the dress going by the name of Nico, but THEY KIDNAPPED KANEKI.

Needless to say, she was not in a good mood. She was, in fact, 100% ready to kill a man just to get rid of some of the frustration of being cooped up and forced to study to raise her grades when she could be searching for the nerd who'd become almost like another brother to her.

Then  _those two_ walked in, smelling oh-so-similar to that pink punk. The scent itself was strange, to say the least. It was present more in the girl than the guy, and she found it to be really quite worrisome because other Europeans had walked in before and they smelled nothing similar. At any rate, they seemed to be defenseless, unlike the Pink Bitch (as Touka officially decided to call her), which is even more worrisome considering what would happen to them if Tsukiyama happened to run into them. Smelling that delicious, and European...

 _Although,_ she thought, _it wouldn't really be that bad if the gourmet were to devour them or exhibit them in his ghoul restaurant._

She turned as her phone screen lit up.  _Ah, Yoriko._ A fond smile worked it's way through her face.

 

Six hours ago

_Yoriko: 董香-ちあああああああああああああああああああん_

_(Touka-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan)_

_Yoriko: 私は、咳止めドロップの外だけど、あなたがいずれかを持っていますか？_

_(I'm out of cough drops, do you have any at your place?)_

_Yoriko: 私はあなたがカレーになるだろうが、私はそううんざりだ_

_(I would fix you curry but I'm sick so)_

_Yoriko: 私が店にいるよ_

_(I'm in the shop)_

_Yoriko: どこにある_

_(Where you is)_

_Yoriko: 私はちょうど今の自分自身に話している?_

_(Am I just talking to myself rn?)_

_Yoriko: 私は後であなたをテキストよ行かなければならない_

_(I gtg I'll txt u l8r)_

 

2 minutes ago

_Yoriko: 私はあなたのドアトウカちゃんの外に立っている_

_(I'm right outside your door Touka-chan)_

_Yoriko: あなたは良い死に自分を勉強することはできませ_

_(You better not be studying yourself to the death)_

_Yoriko: ウサギはあなたが知っている、孤独で死ぬことができます_

_(Rabbits can die of loneliness, you know)_

 

A chill ran down her spine as she thought of her brother..  _Yes, rabbits can die of loneliness._ She pulled off her headphones and closed the history book at which she'd been staring, not actually absorbing a word, since her shift ended, walking over and unlocking the door. Almost immediately she was pulled into one of Yoriko's I-really-missed-you-don't-do-that-again hugs.

_**"Ack!"** _

"Touka-chan, do you have any idea how long I've been waiting for you to respond to my texts?"

"Uh, six hours?"

"Yes!  _Touka-chaaaaaaaaan..."_  she suddenly pulls back, her grip on my shoulders not loosening in the slightest. " _Hmmmmm..."_

"S-sorry..." she apologized, a bead of sweat dropping down her face. "I just now saw them..."

"You're worried about him, aren't you?" Yoriko asked, completely ignoring her friend's last statement, concern evident in her eyes. "Don't worry, coffee boy will be fine, wherever he is."

 

_I hope so._

 

 

**S M U T T Y  S N E A K P E A K  A T  T H E  C A M P**

 

 

If you were to ask most people what a son of Apollo would be doing awake before sunrise, most wouldn't have a single clue. For Nico, though, well... let's just say, he had a few ideas.

"Auckh! Will...!" "Shhh!" Will clamped a hand tightly over Nico's mouth, silencing him.

"Your goal is not to be heard."

"Mhmmmhmmhmhmm," Nico sounded, chewing slightly on his hand.

"Oh wow, thanks."

He complied with the son of Hades's wish, moving his hand back to where it'd been previously braced against the bed.

"So, what was that?" Will asked with a smirk.

"I said," Nico panted, "that's kind of hard to do when your boyfriend is really good at giving handjobs."

Both their faces turned red as strawberries.


	2. II | The Coffeeshop Investigation

 

**  
  
C A L E O  I N  A N T E I K U**

 

"Mission: Coffee Investigation begins now," Calypso whispered not-so-subtly.

The purple-haired waitress sitting across from them, Touka, let out an irritated "tch."

"I think she heard us," Leo whispered back, just as loud.

"May I take your orders?"

Calypso looked up from where she had been scrolling through her tumblr dashboard to see a red-haired waiter standing next to Touka. The two Anteiku ghouls (or so she suspected, ghouls) glared at each other. Ah, so this must have been 'Shitty Nishiki.'

Finally, with a clear of her throat, Touka muttered out a "two lattes, one cup of regular black coffee." Nishiki smirked and walked off to go brew the coffee.

Touka sighed in exasperation, leaning back in her chair just as Calypso decided to lean forwards, resting her hands together on the table.

"So, Touka-chan," she started, a demonic gleam appearing in her eyes, "anything you might know about the missing Kamii student?"

Touka stiffened, shoulders going rigid.

" _Gaaaan-tie?_ " the syllables were drawn out in a slow, quite honestly terrifying methodical rhythm. Leo had only heard Calypso use it once before, and knew he would regret living to the day he would hear it again. Which, he did.

Touka lifted her gaze, meeting the former's teasing stare, before glancing around at the other customers. Her eyes narrowed.

"Let's take this to the back."

"Hnnn," Calypso let out a sound of slightly-mocking victory.

The three of them stood, pushing in their chairs. Touka took a moment to assess them, as though to get a sense of their strength and agility in case she needed to fight. Which, she probably was. Leo personally couldn't blame her, Calypso could be very scary.

Speaking of which, _Slender_ was a game he never wanted to play again. He still didn't understand _how_ Calypso hadn't been scared out of her skin. He had literally fallen off his bed in the hotel they had been staying at. Yes, it was indeed that frightening.

Touka opened the door, leading them in through the door labeled 'Staff Only.' Once they were in, she abruptly closed the door and shoved them against the wall, holding them there by their necks.

"Just who the hell are you people?! And _what right do you have_ to mention Baka-neki?!"

"Leo Valdez and Calyp-" Leo began.

"You know exactly what I meant!" Touka yelled.

"Well, if you would let me finish..." he whimpered.

Calypso rolled her eyes, raising a hand and removing Touka's from where it had previously been resting in what Leo had thought to be an iron grip. Seriously, she made it look as simple as lifting up a can of mountain dew.

"Calypso, previous prisoner of Ogygia," she said it entirely calmly, and if that didn't add fuel to the fire in Touka's eyes, Leo didn't know what would. Calypso nudged Leo with her shoulder.

"Ah! Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus, Greek god of fire and blacksmiths."

"... Am I supposed to be buying this load of bull?"

"Yes."

"Mission failed, then."

Damn, she was good. That reference to what he and Calypso had said earlier... just wow.

_Okay Valdez, stop getting distracted._

Leo sighed, before allowing himself to momentarily be consumed by flames. Touka yanked her hand away, shaking it and holding it in her right for a moment, surprise overtaking her features, before an even colder expression took the original's place.

"What exactly was that?"

"My amazing fire powers. This girl," he began, doing a slight dance, "is on **_fire."_**

"..."

"..."

"Well, if that isn't the cheesiest thing I've heard since Ogygia."

"Agreed. Now, what the Hell do you two want?"

"Information on Ken Kaneki."

"Wait."

"What?"

"How did you know he used to work here?"

"Truthfully? An educated guess of Calypso's."

"Correctimundo."

"Leo no, you've been watching too much Doctor Who."

"You're the one who got me into it!" a pause, "and, Leo yes."

Touka watched the as the two began to bicker, coughing into her hand to draw their attention.

"So, you say you want information on Kaneki, huh?"

The two paused, Calypso halfway through strangling Leo to death. They nodded simultaneously, standing still once more.

"Why?"

"Truth is, we're headed for Long Island South, New York, America."

Touka nodded impatiently. Did they not think she knew what continent New York was on? Canada, United States of _America,_ Mexico. Blah blah blah.

"Although we're supposed to be there soon, we really can't leave until this whole deal is worked through, or at least Chiron doesn't want us to. So, you're kind of stuck with this idiot and I until we get back your Kaneki and _then_ we can leave," Calypso explained.

"How much money do you have for that hotel?"

"Uh," Leo grinned sheepishly.

"You're glad we have a vacancy, even though technically it's supposed to be Kaneki's room."

 

 

**H O W  W E  P R A C T I C E  F T.  D E M I G O D S &  G H O U L S**

 

 

"Hah?! Is that really all you've got?! I've met ordinary humans who can fight better than this!"

"Have you now?"

_F u c k._

It was completely out of nowhere when it happened. One moment, Touka had been on top of the world, or rather, the demigod, when suddenly Calypso had appeared behind her, grin sharper than what she could only assume would be a thousand knives. Faster than she could process what happened, she found herself back-to-back with the ground, head hurting from where it had bounced against the pavement. It's funny how you never realize just how screwed you are until you've actually been there done that.

She blinked dizzily for a few seconds, willing away the black spots as they danced in her eyes. Right, so they obviously didn't need any training whatsoever. Still, it was good to keep in practice. Even though they were leaving tonight. Her head wasn't going to affect her fighting, was it?

Calypso rocked forwards on the balls of her feet, awkwardly pulling her up with an apology. Touka reached an arm around her, which was confusing at first, until Touka grabbed the back of her shirt and shoved her up against her own chest, fingertips pointing straight at the small of her back. With one tiny movement, she could thrust them right through the skin.

"Just one more thing: never let your guard down."

 

 

**T H E  V E R Y  L O U D  (U N) I N S P I R A T I O N A L  S P E E C H**

 

 

"The group's name is Aogiri Tree," Marude's voice rang out towards the assembly of investigators, further helped by the mic not far from his face. "They have over two hundred members that we know about. There has never been an incidence of this many ghouls banding together before."

Amon watched him in silence, the crease in his brow ever-matching his constant stiff composure. Beside him, Shinohara folded his arms, opening his mouth to speak.

"What could their objective be?"

Marude shifted, bringing his right hand up to scratch the back of his head.

"Who ever knows what ghouls are thinking? However, the 11th Ward has been taken from us. That much is certain. Once this fact gets around, it is expected most of the ghouls who have been acting on their own will now join up with Aogiri Tree."

He stood up, stepping forward and beginning to walk through the crowd.

"This will be a war between humans and ghouls. That's why you must turn over your lives to me!"

If that wasn't the most suspicious thing Amon had heard in his life. Well, this was the CCG, so it did make sense.

"That is an order, by the way! You have no right to refuse me! From here on, the 11th Ward special task force--"

The door suddenly burst open, admitting entry to an odd-looking _(kid?)_ with attire and an arrangement of _(were those **stitches?!** )_ not usually seen in such a... professional setting.

"Excuse me!"

Everyone turned, mutters hardly distinguishable through the sudden plot twist.

"I'm Mr. Shinohara's underling, Suzuya Juuzou! Sorry I'm late, but I got lost."

Marude was practically shaking. No, nevermind that, he _was_ shaking.

"Ah, geez..." Shinohara clapped a hand over the side of his face.

"Please accept my regards."

 

 

**M E E T I N G  M A R U D E**

 

 

"They are clearly starting to show signs of an organized movement."

Suzuya hummed, scratching lightly at the stitches of his left arm.

"That is all we know about Aogiri Tree. I'd like to charge after them right now," it was Marude again. "But for the time being, we have to be patient."

"We engage them in one week. Until then, citizens of the 11th Ward are under a mandatory evacuation. Utilize the police. I will deal with the media. That is all. Dismissed!"

The group, as one, rose to leave.

"Yes, sir!"

Just as Marude was about to follow he stopped, vouching instead to approach Juuzou, interrupting his peace.

"So you're Suzuya, huh? You're an awfully slender fellow, aren't you?" His words were mocking.

"Hmm? Uh-oh..." Shinohara turned towards them, eyes widening.

"Are you sure you're eating right?" He leaned in, smile not a single bit sincere. "Do you even have anything in your coin purse?"

"Now, now, Maru," Shinohara interrupted, stepping between the two, hands raised defensively, "Suzuya just got here and I'm sure he's tired. Cut him some slack, okay?"

"What gives? I was just making small talk." They were walking away. Good.

"Okay, okay. Maybe tomorrow, all right?"

Suzuya grinned ever-so-slightly, head tilting to the side, eyes watching as they grew further and further away.

 

 

**L E G I T  I N S P I R A T I O N**

 

 

"Suzuya is the only 3rd Grade Investigator?" Amon questioned, double checking to make sure he had heard right.

"Maru will use whatever he can use."

Shinohara sat across from him, having previously shrugged his jacket off, leaving him wearing a regular white button-down with a magenta-ish tie.

"He must have decided that we can use Juuzou. In any case, he was personally admitted by Chairman Washu himself. Following Arima..."

"Right."

Shinohara sighed.

"Ugh, you know, the enemy has a real problem case, too."

Amon lifted his head from where he had been staring at a paper which, had he not been used to keeping his head craned in one position for so long due to his paperwork and whatnot, would have undoubtedly given him a crick in the neck.

"You mean Jason?"

"Yeah. The 13th Ward's S-rated troublemaker. Sadistic bastard, who kills more for fun than for eating."

Shinohara turned, staring directly into Amon's eyes.

"He's one guy I wouldn't want to go up against. That's right. You've fought him before, huh, Amon?"

Amon lifted his head further, meeting the other's stare.

"Yes. Together with Mr. Mado."

"Right."

Amon lowered his eyes slightly.

 

_What is the deal with that eye-patched man?_

 

 

_"Don't make me a murderer."_

 

 

_His words... his expression... They're dredging up memories I don't want to remember._

 

 

_Amon was running, a smile on his face as he panted from the exertion. He opened the door, ready to-_

_And there he was._

_"Koutarou, who said you could come in?"_

 

 

"Amon..."

"Amon!"

It was Mr. Shinohara.

Amon jumped slightly, snapping back to attention.

"Sorry. Could you repeat that, please?"

"I said your quinque got broken, right?"

"Oh, yes."

"In that case, choose one from Mado's effects."

"Huh?"

"It's in his will. Well, see you later." Shinohara turned and walked away, leaving Amon sitting in a bright green chair, left alone with his thoughts.

_Mr. Mado..._

He stood.

 

 

**A  C H A T  W I T H  O U R  P A S T**

 

 

"Rei, there are apparently a lot of ghouls in the 11th ward. I may be able to get a new quinque," Juuzou was hanging, quite literally, off the building, face towards the stars, unable to hold back how the prospect excited him.

"I can't wait."

He suddenly leaned back further, spreading his arms out as he began to cackle.

"I have to be a good boy, or else Mama will be cross with me again."

 

 

**C O N C E R N I N G  S U N S H I N E**

 

 

_"CCG is moving quickly to increase the investigator presence in the 11th Ward, and pinpoint this ghoul organization's base. I can state that it's only a matter of time before this case is closed."_

The bright light of the TV illuminated the various piles of books on ghouls sitting... well, everywhere.

  
_"But isn't the full-scale evacuation of citizens in the area a little over-aggressive?"_ an interviewed asked.

_"That is ultimately for everyone's safety."_

Next to where his jacket hung were pictures, notes, each one depicting images or _something_ to do with ghouls.

The camera panned in on Marude's face.

_"CCG is on everyone's side."_

_Yes. Everyone's but those you ruthlessly slaughter._

_"--And so, I ask that you all please not enter any off-limits areas."_

"At least text me, would you, Kaneki?"

A storm was moving in, in as Nagachika predicted, more ways than one.

 

 

**R E S C U E  M E E T I N G**

 

 

The two foreigners were... to say the least, strange. Stranger even than onii-chan. Speaking of which...

"Hinami..." Touka muttered her name as Hinami extended her hand to rest against Touka's.

"Onee-chan..." she smiled reassuringly.

"Mm-hmm," Touka smiled back, understanding.

"He's not as soft as he looks."

Touka and Hinami turned to face the red-head as he sat leaned back against the couch.

"Nishiki..."

The door opened, the three looking up to watch as Yoshimura entered.

"Looks like everyone is here," the manager spoke out, removing his fedora.

"There will be a few more coming later, but let's get started now."

Eight of them were sitting around a coffee table. Touka and Hinami were at one end, Yoshimura the other. Nishiki, Leo, and Calypso sat on one sofa, Koma and Irimi across from them.

"This concerns the problems unfolding in the 11th Ward, and the actions Anteiku is to take."

The mood was downcast, the weather matching perfectly. Rain not yet to fall, but in it's place a heavy sense of foreboding.

"But before we get to that, I have one thing to say... about the kidnapped Kaneki."

Touka looked up from where she had been staring down at her hands.

"You'll be served not thinking we'll ever see Kaneki again."

The purple-haired ghoul let out a breath somewhere between anger and panic.

"Hey, you old coot! Don't even talk like that!" Nishiki yelled, standing up in retaliation.

"Stop!"

"Stop," Touka didn't even bother to look at him.

He turned back to the manager with an unheard scoff.

"We're going, right? To save him? Well?!"

"Aogiri Tree is made up of ghouls who live for nothing but to fight. It will not be easy to sneak into their base and rescue Kaneki."

Hinami watched on, trembling.

_Onii-san..._

"No... It can't be..." She leaned further against Touka's chair closing her eyelids tightly as she willed back the tears.

"Moreover, we cannot ignore CCG's movements. They will probably be sending a detachment into the 11th Ward soon to wipe out the Aogiri Tree members. If we did go to save him, there's a good chance that we'd be the ones who were exterminated."

Nishiki's face twisted into one of utter disbelief.

"Hey, what is this? You're not thinking of abandoning him?!"

"I'm going."

All eyes turned to Touka.

"What was the policy of this shop, again?"

She stood up.

"Sir, if you're not going... then I'll go alone."

"I'm going, too."

Nishiki glanced at Touka out of the corner of his eye.

"I do owe him."

"I want to help, too."

The two of them looked down to see Hinami as she begged Touka.

"Onii-san is always helping me out, so... if there's anything I can do, I'll do it!"

"Hinami..."

"Let me say this, so there's no misunderstanding," Yoshimura interjected, "I was always planning to go rescue Kaneki."

The three thought-to-be rebels turned with a collective gasp.

"However, I wanted you to know that I couldn't guarantee your lives. I know how you all feel. If you want to save Kaneki, you must stake your lives on it. In return, Yomo and I will protect you with all our might."

He leaned slightly to the left.

"It is Anteiku's policy to help each other out, after all."

He turned towards where Leo and Calypso sat watching the seen unfold.

"And how about you two? What are your plans?"

"We're sticking with you," Leo replied.

"Not just because of Chiron's orders, we're also genuinely wanting to help," Calypso followed up, elbowing him in the chest. He winced.

Yoshimura gave a single nod, smiling at the two of them, before becoming serious once more.

"There is one more thing."

He turned towards the door.

"Come on in!"

Everyone tensed up as the door opened to reveal the gourmet. Touka clenched her fists, Nishiki's eyes widening slightly as he clenched his jaw.

"You! But why?!"

"Amore!" Tsukiyama threw his hand up in the air, dramatic as ever.

"Heartbreak! Imagine, my best friend Kaneki, facing danger at the hands of some irrational bunch!"

_... Weren't you the one that tried to eat him not that long ago?_

"No kidding!"


	3. III | Uncaged

**T H E  S U N ' S  S W O R D**

 

"Kaneki," Hide whispered.

He unsheathed Backbiter, double checking to make sure the quinque edges weren't going to for some reason break off. But they weren't, they were melded in by a son of Hephaestus, after all.

"I'm sorry. This is all my fault."

 

 

**P L A N N E D  A T T A C K**

 

 

"Hinami," Touka whispered.

The daughter ghoul turned towards her, face hidden under one of the crimson capes they had stolen to blend in.

She glanced at the demigod and minor goddess, nose flaring as her kakugan blazed, a silent message of _betray us and I will rip out your bones one by one while you're conscious and force them down your own throat._

The two nodded slightly in understanding.

Yoshimura turned to the group, activating his kakugan as well. As Leo watched, they all did. For some reason, he began to feel left out, though the reason didn't make that much sense. Whatever, he was Leo, and he was used to these sort of things.

"Leo and Calypso will accompany Touka to search for Kaneki. Yomo, Uta, and Tsukiyama," he turned his head to look at them, "will flank them on the left. Nishiki, trail between and behind both groups. Hinami, stay with Festus. I'll draw in the attention of the CCG. Again, I cannot guarantee your lives."

"Understood." He smirked, which was quite terrifying to tell the truth.

"Then let us begin."

 

 

**Y A M O R I**

 

 

_"Yo, Kaneki!"_

Hide???

_"Rabbits can die of loneliness you know."_

Hide...

_"1000-7 is what?" Rize asked, leaning over him, breasts exposed much like on their date, when everything went wrong..._

Their mangled bodies were surrounding him from all sides and angles. Hinami, Touka, Hide...

**_"Mom."_ **

Who... was that?"

Now there was a guy around his age ever-so-slowly walking towards him, all white hair and red stitches. He stopped in front of the raven, staring down at him until Kaneki began to feel uncomfortable. He held out a wallet.

_"You've been wanting this back, haven't you?"_

 

The illusion vanished.

 

He was still in the chair.

 

  
_"Good morning, Kaneki-kun."_

Oh, so perhaps it hadn't.

_A tall man was staring down at him, a gleam of insanity hidden locked away behind purple eyes._

"Tsukiyama-san..."

"Who's Tsukiyama?"

 

Yes, the illusion was gone.

 

He emerged in the cold, tiled chamber once more.

Kaneki slowly raised his head to see Jason holding his usual medical apparatus. He clacked it twice, grinning behind his mask as Kaneki began to tremble.

"I've got something new planned for us today. If you can't remember my name, then you shouldn't be able to speak in the first place."

Kaneki screamed.

 

 

**W E L C O M E  T O  H E L L**

 

 

Calypso sighed, pulling the mask further down over her face. It was makeshift at best, but for now it'd have to do.

"You know, I never imagined I'd be infiltrating a ghoul terrorist group while insufficiently disguised as a ghoul."

She snorted.

"Same."

A peaceful silence fell over the two of them as they made their way through the building, cursing when they were almost found out, but quickly decapitating the threatening ghoul. It was a bikaku type, like Nishiki.

"I wonder how Touka-chan's doing."

"Dunno. Nishiki's with her though, isn't he?"

"Yeah."

"That's good. We'd all probably die if we were alone."

"I think that's just you, Leo."

"Wow, thanks, I feel like my skills are so appreciated."

"Don't push your luck."

Ahead of them were two doors, huge and dark and looming as if to conceal some unforeseeable tragetic fate.

Behind it someone screamed.

"Open it?"

"Let's open it."

 

 

**T H E  S L I G H T L Y - H A P P I E R  R A B B I T  S I B L I N G  AU**

 

 

A cold hand found it's way to Ayato's shoulder, causing him to jump.

"What the actual fuck, Touka-chan?!"

Her eyes were alight with laughter.

"I hate you."

"Because that's definitely why you'd run to Aogiri to spy for the coffeeshop I work at. Absolutely."

"I hate you," he repeated.

Nishiki simply watched on in amusement.

 

 

**R U N A W A Y**

 

 

"Aww, Yamori-kun," she had been sitting there, observing the whole time.

How had he not noticed?

**_How had he not noticed?_ **

"It's been a pleasure to watch little Gantai here," she gestured to him, bright pink Rose Byrne-esque haircut swaying as she stood. "But as it turns out," she pulled up the sleeve of her black cloak, "my departure's a bit earlier than originally planned."

He turned around, watching her back as she retreated towards the door. She reached out, curling one hand around the knob, before throwing her head around at a neck-breaking angle to look back at him.

"Arigato."

 

 

**A  F O O T  O F F  T H E  W E L C O M I N G  M A T**

 

 

In that moment, time had seemed to slow down for Leo Valdez, the son of Hephaestus, creator or Festus and the Argo II. The screams of the blonde bounced off the walls, seemingly increasing in volume with each hit, reverberating through the cold, dank, musty air. More blood was splattered across the floor, followed by the sounds of chewing _chewing chewing._ _He's eating him oh gods he's eating him get me out get me out get me out get me **out.**_

Leo felt a hand grip his own, and he wanted to look away to see Calypso smiling at him, that always reassuring smile, he _wanted so badly_ to look away, but he just couldn't. Not when there was literal cannibalism, in every sense of the word, taking place right in front of his eyes. Why had they agreed to help? When, exactly, did tagging along with a group of man-eating ghouls seem like a good idea?!

  
_Although,_ he mused, _we did get a good look at that 'pink-haired psycho bitch.'_ But the real question was: had it been worth the price? Leo was sure he'd seen her face before, but he just couldn't recall who she was. Her words echoed in his ears.

_"You don't know my name because you didn't want to know my name."_

Calypso took a step forward, letting his hand fall gently away from his own.

"C-Calypso?!" It was hardly louder than a whisper, nonetheless the white-haired half-ghoul he guessed was Kaneki Ken froze before continuing.

She turned towards him just enough, a comforting smile warming her lips, before continuing to walk forwards.

The sound of her shoes hitting the floor rang in his ears again and again.

They pounded on the checkerboard flooring, getting louder and louder until they were like thunder, yet... still mere footsteps.

She stopped only a few feet in front of where Kaneki was still occupied with eating Jason alive, if 'Jason' could still be called that. It was pretty awkward when a psychopath ghoul going by the same name as a certain son of Zeus you know was torturing someone and then being eaten alive. Yeah.

  
_Okay,_ he thought to himself, _brain, I did not give you permission to replace Yamori 'Jason' with camp 'Jason.'_

Calypso stood still for a moment before slowly raising one foot, arms slightly forward and held to the sides, before bringing it down again and again with a sickening crunch each time.

_What?_

It was the centipede Kaneki had pulled out of his ear. It was the freakin' centipede. _Oh gods, gross._ Calypso stomped on it again and again, watching as it flailed and died.

By this time, Kaneki was done eating Yamori and was watching as well.

"Well, that was mildly terrifying."

"You don't say."

This was going to be interesting.

 

 

**T H E   B I N G E   E A T E R   A N D   T H E   C A N D Y G H O U L**

 

 

_"Rize-saaaaaaaaan~"_

_The binge eater looked up from where she'd been feasting on the freshly-killed corpse. She tilted her head to the side._

_"Nani?" The pink-haired ghoul landed before her, black cape blown up dramatically by the breeze and the fall. Her hair fanned out around her mask. It was a mask of the face of a monster, outlining eyes that swirled with layered, ever-changing colour. She removed the mask with a pout._

_"I'm booooooooooored~."_

_Rize rolled her eyes._

_"I'm in no ways required to assist you with your boredom."_

_"But I have a fun ideaaaaaaaaaaaaa~."_

_She scowled._

_"What do you need me for then?!"_

_The chaotic ghoul locked her mismatched eyes on the purplette's._

_"I have a game I'd like to play. Have you ever considered 'visiting' the 11th Ward?"_

_Rize stiffened._

_"Why would I want to mess around with those control freaks?!"_

_"It'll be amusing~" The unrated ghoul's tone and eyes were playful, but her stance told a completely different story._

_"Come on, Rize-san," she murmured, plopping down next to said ghoul, "don't you want to play with me?"_

 

Piper snapped back to reality, staring at katoptris as though she'd been burned. She'd already seen the pink chick before, but who the Hades was 'Rize'?!

_Annabeth._

She needed to find Annabeth.


	4. IIII | Shit Goes Down, Hope Goes Up

**S U N S H I N E &  S W E E T S**

 

"Nagachika-kuuuuuun~" her voice rang out through the many hallways, following Hide as he ran. He spun around, trying desperately to find the creepy-ass stalker.

"O-oi... at least show your face..."

A flash of pink was all the warning he got before she lunged from the shadows, the force throwing back her black hoodie hood to reveal her Charlotte Witch [Madoka Magica] mask.

"It's nice to finally get to meet you!" Her voice was sweet, like that of a child. Well, it was until she began laughing. Then she just sounded like Beatrice [Umineko].

A ukaku bullet sliced across his lower calf, followed by another and another until his legs could no longer hold him steady. She stood above him, mask grinning down in a way that reminded him of a fox about to eat it's prey.

"Kaneki-kun's told me a lot about you," she leaned in, curving her koukaku to rest under his chin. "I wonder if he'd enjoy seeing your head hung above his next sleeping place." The pink muscle retracted suddenly, and she leaned away, leaping to rest her back against the cold, stone wall.

"Actually, I've got an even better idea," her voice was cold now, which was ironic now that he thought back on it, considering her next words. "We could burn you up on the ceiling above his bed in an old fashioned Mary Winchester! Although, then again it wouldn't be the same since you two don't have a kid and aren't technically in a relationship, regardless of how much I ship you..."

 _Well,_ he thought,  _she's definitely insane._

She crossed her arms over her chest, pulling an iPhone 6 Plus out of her sleeve to check the time.

"Well, as fun as out little chat has been," she recited, as though she had done this a great many times before, "Ciao."

_What...?_

 

 

**H A L F**

 

 

Kaneki observed the odd couple as though he were trying to decide whether or not they posed a threat. The girl,  _Calypso,_ his mind supplied, was closer and apparently much braver, though he didn't sense anything odd except for the distinct lack of any scent whatsoever. Then again, his nose may have still been clogged with just how  _disgusting_ Yamori had been. The guy, on the other hand, did seem to have some sort of smell, like some sort of fuel and cinders, though that may have just been Kaneki's mind playing tricks on him.

Exhaustion weighed on his limbs, dragging him to the floor into the blood of the corpse he had just consumed. At this rate, no, since that very first bite he wouldn't have been able to fight either of the two off had he even wanted to. He just wanted to sleep. Sleep, puke, and go back to sleep. For eternity.

 _You can't do that yet,_ the cautious part of his mind screamed,  _they might hurt you and find Hide! They could kill Hide! Kill them, devour them, protect Hide protect Anteiku protectprotectprotect-_

He fell.

Calypso rushed forward, catching him in outstretched arms. In one swift motion she hooked one arm under his legs, using the other to manipulate his torso and neck into a somewhat comfortable position that ended with him leaning against her chest as she held him bridal style.

 _Damn, this guy is heavy,_ she mentally cursed to herself.  _Probably that rinkaku._

"Hey," she whispered in a soothing voice, "calm down. We're with Anteiku, no need to panic. Just relax for a bit, okay?"

His head lolled against her chest, his eyes closed.

_Is he unconscious already?!_

She turned on the ball of her heel, beginning her trek over the tiled floor slippery with blood once more.

She smirked at Leo as she passed.

"You coming?"

"Hu-wha- oh. Yeah."

 

 

**W A T C H D O G**

 

 

"Their footsteps are... it's alright. It sounds like they all got in successfully."

"Irimi-San, that's amazing," Hinami whispered, turning to look at the older ghoul.

"Hinami-chan, I'm sure you'll be able to do it, too." She pat the girl on the head. "Listen, what do you hear?"

Hinami tensed up, listening as hard as she could. She turned to Irimi with wide eyes.

"Onii-chan."

"Kaya, how is the CCG moving?"

Iris leaned forwards, tilting her head to gaze at the Manager on the other side of the tree.

"They've split into three forces. CCG has the upper hand."

"Valdez and Calypso?"

"They're on their way back."

"Hmm... then there's little choice. We'll need to buy them time."

He stood up, sclera turning black.

"Kaya, look after Hinami."

"Right."

 

 

**R E M E M B E R  O U R  S I N S**

 

 

Touka vaulted back, narrowly avoiding the quinque thrusted towards her chest. 

"You...! You, at last...!"

The investigator raised it again, slashing down onto the cement where she's landed not a second previous.

_Is he really this strong?_

She spread her ukaku, feet braced against the ground as she prepared to jump once more.

**_"Auuuuugh!"_ **

_What's pushing him this far?_

 

 

_The gravel was covered in blood. In the corner, sheltered between two walls, a little girl trembled._

_Ah, there it was._

_The dead body of an investigator, left arm spread in front of him as though he's been reaching out for something. His face lay planted into the ground, eyes open. One twitched with a muscle spasm, though he couldn't have been more dead._

 

_Is it because of me?_

The investigator brought down his quinque again, this time taking out the fence that had held so strong up until this point. She jolted to the side, turning and backing up considerably. The investigator still faced her.

_I'm sorry._

Behind him, Ayato unleashed his own ukaku, raining bullet upon bullet upon him. She sent her own, recoiling furthermore to avoid the onslaught.

_We don't have time to deal with him right now._

"You won't get away!"

Ignoring Ayato, he ran towards her. It was at this moment that they had a stroke of luck. Two glowing blue bikaku wound their way through the bars that held the roof of the bridge Touka had retreated to. They crossed directly in front of the investigator, forming a block shaped somewhat like an x. They dug into his feet, sending him crashing to his knees.

She closed her eyes for a moment, which could've been a horrible mistake, which she mentally admonished herself for. She reopened them, throwing her head in the direction of their escape.

Her little brother nodded, though it wasn't like she would see it.

_Shitty sister..._

 

 

**B I N**

 

 

"I recognized Black Rabbit, but who was that other one just now?"

"I dunno, smelled a lot like him. Think they're related?"

"Probably."

"Hey. That was a number three combo. He's a tough human."

"The S-rated... Bin Brothers..."

Amon deflected the hit, knowing just how screwed he truly was. Taking on an S-rated alone? Not a good idea. Two? Worse idea.

_Can I do it, too, Mado-san?!_

 

 

_They were making their way down the steps, admiring the beautiful day and the wonderfully blue water, the plants a healthy shade of green next to a small silver tree that fanned it's almost leafless branches over the railing. It probably had to be cut on a regular basis to keep out of the way of the people strolling along._

_"Amon, how do you suppose a human of inferior physical capabilities can prevail in a fight against a ghoul?"_

 

He grunted as he was thrown against the hard surface of the ground, never relinquishing his grasp on his quinque.

 

_Now they were crossing under one of those road bridges, the sun shining brightly against the cement, displaying the illusion of a puddle where on this day there wouldn't be one._

_"Certainly, the building up of their muscles and stamina is vital," he answered._

_Kureo smirked._

_"Hmm... That is true. But fighting head-on against a ghoul, you'll never be able to overpower them."_

 

The brothers took to the air, soaring directly for him, twisting and unleashing their bikaku once more. He tried to deflect, he really did; but it was all in vain. As much as he may try, they overpowered him. One of the blue kagune landed a blow across his torso, throwing him back once more.

 

_"So, do you know what you can do to close that gap and prevail?"_

_They were standing on a bridge above water, the sun reflecting in beautiful patterns across the ever-moving surface._

_"No."_

_The elder investigator's hair spiraled out in the breeze, blowing in front of his face and bathing it in shadow._

 

"Number one combo!"

"Right!"

They barreled directly at him, sole focus on ending the life of the investigator unlucky enough to be in their path.

 

_It was as though he were looking at a picture through a phone, tinted amber with the colours of the setting sun._

_"Being wily, Amon. As long as it's for the right cause, any dirty tricks can be overlooked."_

_His eyes shone gold, a pale fire reflecting from his overgrown white hair._

 

They circled him, cloaks flapping with the force of their speed. He was crouched down, waiting for their attack.

 

_This time, it was sunrise._

_"I have a quinque named Kura among my collection. It's suited to you."_

 

He stood up, blocking their attack, possibly smashing one of their feet in the process. It wouldn't take that long for them to heal anyway. A bikaku shot past his head, narrowly missing his ear. This was it. He split the quinque in half, preparing his own attack.

 

_"If I ever die..."_

 

_It was that night._

_The night that Kureo Mado was killed by the ghoul known as Rabbit._

_He raised his hand, sliding the deceased investigator's eyes shut. The rabbit couldn't have even given him that._

 

_"Amon, you should use it."_

 

"Mado-san!"

A form of red electricity swirled around and between the halves of the quinque, forming a barrier between he and the ghouls. One of them threw themselves towards him, circling their bikaku. He countered, shoving them back and letting out a yell of exertion as he raised the other half of Kura, chopping through the muscle as it practically dangled in front of him. He raised his other arm, beheading the monster, slicing through it's torso multiple times.

He turned and ended the other just as easily.

_I can't afford to let it all end here. Not until I have avenged you._

He raised his head just in time to see an owl soar past.

 

 

**B A N J O U**

 

"Banjou-san!" the voice was Touka's, and he turned to see she and her brother running after them as they left the building.

_Ayato???_

He exchanged a glance with his little gang, trying to figure out if they should run or wait up. In the end, it didn't matter, as the Kirishima siblings had already caught them.

"Banjou-san," Touka wheezed, slightly out of breath, "nice to see you again."

"And you," he stared at Ayato cautiously, but the higher-ranked ghoul simply huffed in annoyance.

"You need to get out of here. No worries, Calypso and Leo are on their way to find Kaneki. Just head back to Anteiku, Koma-san is waiting there. Got it?"

He nodded in understanding, still feeling uncertain in the presence of Ayato.

"Just do whatever he says when you get there, or go wherever, doesn't matter. Just get out of here before you all get yourselves killed."

"Hai," he paused, "arigato, Touka-chan, Ayato-kun."

Touka nodded, before grabbing hold of her now-fuming little brother and dragging him back further into the building.

_If he gets himself killed, I swear I will bring him back just to kill him myself._

 

 

**1 / 3**

 

 

Noro paused, watching as one of the ghouls who'd been making his way towards him made their descent down the stairs.

"What... are you?"

Behind him, another began to chortle.

"I follow the strongest scent, and I end up sharing a table with you, Mister High C," another addressed the previous. This was the one that'd been following him around.

"Keep your guard up," a third appeared, warning the other two. "Apparently, this is no ordinary ghoul."

"What a charming mouth," the second mocked, snapping his fingers and releasing his koukaku. "Allow me to give you a passionate baiser."

The third allowed his kakuhou to become visible.

"Let's go!"

The second began full-out laughing, joy evident on his face. The three stormed forwards, a sea of crimson ruffling in their wake.

 

 

**C R I M S O N  T H R E A D**

**T H E  S U N ' S  N O T  D E A D**

 

 

"Hello there!" the ghouls that had been surrounding Leo and Calypso collapsed, dead.

"Huh?!"

A figure danced his way towards them, grinning maliciously.

"My name's Suzuya Juuzou," he introduced himself, pulling out a dagger. "What's yours?"

 

_He was laughing, laughinglaughinglaughing._

_"Hang in there! Hang in there, hang in there, hang in there!"_

_Each 'hang in there' was punctuated by a swift jab of his dagger, the momentum of each propelling the next further and harder than the last._

_"Hang in there!"_

_Finally, the killing blow was dealt._

_"Don't die now."_

_He stepped out from between the two buildings, staring at the ground with what could be called a 'killing' smile. He could sense eyes on him, could imagine the sheer force of their gaze pushing him into the ground. But that couldn't happen, now, could it? He raised his head, eyes darting up to meet with those of a ghoul, one standing further from a group of other ghouls who appeared to be clustering around something._

 

"No need to be frightened, now," he assured, still with that grin, holding the dagger out, pointed end in their direction.

Calypso stepped behind Leo slightly, unsure of what to do as she was the one stuck carrying the unconscious man.

Suzuya stepped forward and they tensed, Leo's hang slipping around one of the many blades he had hidden under his cloak.

"We're all friends here, aren't we?"

A torrent of red shards flew towards the white-haired investigator. He dodged them easily, leaving Leo and Calypso directly in their path.

 

This was the moment where things could go one of two ways. They could die, or, by some miracle, they could live. Thankfully, it was the second option that overruled the first.

Nishiki choked out a groan, glaring at the two of them.

"Don't be so careless, you damn boneheads!"

"Nishiki!" Touka yelled, jumping down from where she and Ayato had launched their attack.

The ginger let out a chuckle before his knees buckled, and he fell to the ground unconscious.

"Ah, you have three other friends you'd like to introduce me to?" Juuzou walked forwards, legs moving in long, confident strides. Leo gaped, panicking.

"Get those two and yourselves to your dragon, I'll handle this guy," a new person ordered, striding forwards. He paused next to Calypso, staring down at Kaneki and brushing the pale, snow white bangs out of his eyes, emotion churning behind his own before pulling a sword out of a sheath on his back they hadn't realized he'd had.

_Wait... two different metals? Tempered steal and celestial bronze? Isn't that the sword Annabeth had described to us, what was it called??-_

_**"Backbiter?!"** _

 

  

  **O U R  C O M E D I C  R E A L I T Y**

 

 

"Hide?" Touka questioned in disbelief, eyes wide. The human glanced back at her with a slight smirk tugging at his lips.

"Hello, Touka-chan. Still sure you won't give me your number?"

Ayato tensed next to her, arms full of a certain serpent ghoul.

"Oi, don't hit on my-"

"Relax, bro," she deadpanned. "He's got his sights set on that idiot there."

It was very, very clear she was referencing to Kaneki.

"I-I-I was just," Ayato stuttered, squeezing Nishiki slightly in his grasp.

"Seriously, get out of here, I'll catch up to you all later," Hide called from where he and Juuzou were having a major stare down. He sweat dropped.

"You'd better, or I'll kick your ass myself."

 

 

**R E T U R N**

 

 

Hinami let out a gasp, pointing to a group adorned in red making their way towards them. She raised her binoculars, poking Irimi to get her attention.

"Irimi-san, they're back!"

"Hm?" Irimi borrowed the aids, staring through to double check.

"Manager, they're on their way." 

She fiddled with her phone for a moment, changing to tune into the group's earpieces.

 

_"Touka-chan, are we ready for liftoff?"_

_"Non non non," it was Tsukiyama who answered. "We're still on our way. We also ran into Kaneki-kun's friend, he's with us now."_

_"How far away are you?"_

_"Not that far behind Touka-chan and Ayato-kun, though it'd be great if you'd wait up. Hideyoshi-kun seems to have injured his legs a bit, and it's slowing us down a bit."_

_"I didn't plan on it!" the voice rang in the background._

_Hinami stifled a laugh._

 

_"Manager, we're in the clear."_


	5. V | Rise of the Starting Point

**T H E  T H I N G S  T H A T  C A N  B E  H E A R D**

 

_"Things are beginning to pick up speed again, aren't they?"_

_"Well, it was really only a matter of time."_

_"Indeed, indeed."_

Hinami and Arkade, the son of Nemesis, were listening closely, ears pressed against the thick wooden door.

_"We'll have to depart soon. The 20th ward can't afford the loss of Anteiku at this point."_

_"I see. If I can get Reyna to ask Dick Roman to get begin the exchange program set today, it'll be ready by tomorrow."_

_"I'd like that. This is Dick Roman of Roman Industries, right?"  
_

_"Yes, he attended Roman University in Camp Jupiter back when it was still being run by his mom."_

_"He's gone far."_

_"Agreed. Well, it was to be expected, him being three-fourths a god and all."_

_"So close to one and three-fourths."_

They exchanged a glance at the random Harry Potter reference. Arkade Taylor was fourteen, and had curly black hair like his mom, cut and shaved on one side to imitate an action figure his mom had given him when he was eleven. He wore black tight-fitting leather pants and an over-sized orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, three beads on his necklace. Three years at the Greek camp. For shoes he wore high, black leather combat boots with strings going up all the way to the top at the front, stygian iron studs in the back.

He was kind of like the Nemesis's-son, French-demigod version of Ayato.

Tsukiyama loved him.

In a very creepy, perverted, but not as insane as he loved Kaneki way.

_"That was a really good reference."_

_"I know right? It's amazing how many references you can make when a whole cabin of Athena's kids force you to read every book in the history of time and space for eternity."_

_"But did you **hear** the spirit of the oracle's last prophecy? Rachel-chan must've taught it text talk."_

_"Probably did, I wouldn't doubt it."_

_"So, the exchange program?"_

_"Hmm, if you could spare three people we could send in Annabeth Chase, Hazel Levesque, and Jason Grace."_

_"Hinami-chan and Ayato-kun will have no place to hide back in Japan, so those two would be my first choices. Kaneki recently dropped out of University and will probably want to continue, but I doubt Kamii will let him back in at this point. It'd be like running across a tightrope with so many full-humans around. If he stays, Hideyoshi-kun is bound to as well. Everyone else has actual lives, unlike those nerds. That would leave you with three ghouls and another son of Apollo. Of course, that is if they agree to it."_

_"Then it's a deal."_

 

 

 

**T O U R G U I D E**

 

 

"Which cabin is that?" Hinami questioned adorably, pointing to cabin 13.

Annabeth brought an arm up, scratching the back of her head subconsciously with a small laugh.

"That would be the Hades cabin. It's where Nico and Hazel stay, whenever they're around."

"Nico's the guy who looks like Ayato-kun, right?"

Annabeth paused, realizing that they did indeed look very similar.

"Yup, he's our Ayato."

"ANNAAAAABETHHH—"

"Hm?" Annabeth turned only to get a handful of the love goddess's daughter.

"Gack, Piper!" They fell to the ground, Annabeth shoving the other off with an annoyed "you're heavy."

Piper merely laughed, rolling back over to continue being a deadweight once more.

"Get offffff!"

"Nooooooooooooo..." Piper blinked, realizing the ghouls were staring.

"We're completely normal."

"Seriously Mclean, get off."

"Don't mind if I do~"

"Oh my gods, I swear to Zeus if you-"

"Alright, alright, I get it, chill."

They finished the tour in relative peace, dropping Hinami and Ayato off by the Artemis cabin, where they and Kaneki would be sleeping for the duration of their stay at Camp Half-Blood. Hermes had already gathered up and delivered their stuff, leaving it just outside the door where once upon a time before Gaia's attack, Connor and Travis would have stolen something.

"Have fun unpacking!" Piper waved back to them, flashing a bright smile as she and Annabeth walked away.

Hinami waved back.

Ayato tch'd.

 

 

**E X C H A N G E**

 

 

"I don't like it. How are they," Touka pointed to the chosen ghoulish trio, ignoring Hide entirely, "going to eat?"

"Hermes will of course be handling the delivery of 'ghoul food.'"

"That seems rather shifty, if you ask me. What if he decides to condemn them all to starvation?"

"Have you ever met Hermes?" Nico asked the purplette, to which she shook her head. "Exactly. He wouldn't, and even if he did, George and Martha would force him to deliver the human meat."

"They would, along with a request for rats," Percy laughed, earning himself a few glares from across the room.

The light from the tiny fire reflected in Annabeth's stormy grey eyes.

"It could work, but the real question, is why? Ordinarily, if we were to set up an entire exchange program, we wouldn't hustle to form it immediately like we are now. Instead, we would be giving ourselves a few months to sort out any sort of issues and whatnot to make it entirely invisible from everyone. We would be thinking it through entirely, creating an exceptionally secure program that has no chance of being found out. What, exactly, are you not telling us?"

Touka clenched her hand on the padding of her seat.

"Perceptive as always, Chase," Chiron praised. "Recently, Rachel has given us another prophecy, only this time we figured it'd be best to let you all know before the rest of the two camps."

He looked each of them in the eyes. Reyna, Hinami, Touka, Annabeth, Percy, Jason, Leo, Calypso, Piper, Frank, Hazel, Nico, Ayato, Nishiki, Irimi, Koma, Yomo, Uta, Tsukiyama, Hide.

"The prophecy, as you can guess, isn't a nice one. Who am I kidding, it never is," he sighed.

_"Ghoul die._

_Demigod die._

_Human die._

_Satyr die._

_Everyone die._

_TTYL, bitches."_

"Who the fuck taught the spirit of the oracle text talk?!"

"Probably Rachel, I mean," Reyna reasoned. She, Jason, Hazel, and Frank had traveled from the Roman Camp to attend the meeting on the request of Chiron.

"More importantly, I think Thalia and Grover need to be caught up to date," Annabeth interrupted, cutting the two off as they began to get off topic.

"Good point." Hazel turned to the Manager. "What should us going with you to Anteiku bring?"

"Tch, necessities and entertainment. Basically, whatever you want, though packing lightly is always a recommendation," Touka answered. She thought a moment before asking a question.

"Do any of you know Japanese?"

Annabeth raised her hand.

"Right, you're our designated Kaneki. Who's best at making coffee?"

All three stared at her blankly.

"Manager, can't Nishiki teach them instead of me for once?"

The Manager chuckled slightly.

"Ah, Touka-chan, but where would the fun in that be? Besides, the only person who didn't know a thing in the beginning that you've had to teach so far was Kaneki."

Said coffee nerd hid his face in his hands.

Touka shot each of them one of her venomous glares.

"The others will be able to as well while we're there, thanks to Hermes' new Godly Translation mental-app thing that he and mom created," Annabeth broke through the silence.

It didn't last, and soon an even thicker silence lay across them.

"Hey, Ayato," Piper interrupted, stretching her arms out and forming a pillow behind her head as she called for the ghoul's attention. "You knew the Cotton Candy Ghoul, didn't you?"

He frowned.

"How do you know she exists?"

She shrugged.

"Magical future-seeing dagger. Don't bother questioning it, a great many have tried and all have failed."

"I guess you could say we've spoken," his voice had turned bitter, with a bitter expression.

"What's her kagune?"

"How, in the name of sanity, am I supposed to know that?!"

"I know," Hide interrupted before things escalated. "Her kagune is like Tsukiyama-san's in the perspective that she generally has it wrapped around her arm. At the same time though, the texture and solidity match Kaneki's general-"

"How exactly do you know what Kaneki's kagune's usual texture and solidity are?"

Hide ignored Touka's question. "Except with sharp bendy lines on the sides and an end that fans out much like a ukaku, with the ability to shoot ukaku bullets. The sharp bendy lines seem like they'd serve mostly to make it sturdier and work kind of like a knife, but then again, that's just an educated guess. The color was orange, and the sharp line thingies were pink, as well as the ukaku bullets. The ukaku end fanned out a lot like you'd imagine a mermaid's tail, really, and if it weren't so coarse I'd have thought it brittle."

They stared as he rambled, each trying to draw up an image of what that'd look like. Calypso noticed Leo drawing something out in his notebook.

"Did the lines curve slightly, wrap around it in loop-de-loops, or just run with it in straight lines, well, straight lines if it were being held out straight?"

Hide thought back.

"They were kind of all over the place, honestly. If I didn't know better, I'd even say they were  _shifting._ "

"Shifting?" Piper leaned forwards in interest.

"Yeah. Like they were depicting different patterns, or something along those lines. Oh, I just made a pun. I'm much better at this than Ayato," Ayato made a face, "but anyway, shifting. Like something from one of Kaneki's indecipherable books."

"Hide, they're not indeciphe-"

"Yeah, yeah."

Chiron rubbed his beard, appearing to be deep in thought.

Kaneki frowned.

"That sounds a lot like what you'd see in one of Takatsuki Sen's recent books."

 _ **"TAKATSUKI SEN?!"**  _Annabeth almost leapt out of her seat, held back by Touka and Percy.  ** _"WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT BOOKS."_**

"Have you read  _Egg of the Black Goat_ by any chance?"

"Yes! That's my favourite!" Annabeth nearly jumped out of his chair, startling Hide, who had begun to sleep on him.

"We need to talk about books." Kaneki confirmed as he stood.

"No, no, no," Hazel stood up as well, pulling both of them back and pushing them down into their respective seats. "We need to finish discussing the exchange program."

"You're both fucking nerds," Ayato insulted,  _ **still glaring.**_

"Perhaps, but Kaneki's my nerd," Hide slunk an arm around Kaneki's torso, laying back down to use his leg as a pillow again.

"Asdfjkl t ** _HEY'RE SO CUTE AGHHH NICO HELP,"_** Will sounded as though he were drowning after being in a state of boredom for so long, starting to literally glow as he began to fanboy.

Chiron checked his watch with a sigh.

"It's getting late, isn't it? If you intend on leaving early tomorrow morning, you should really hit the sheets soon. May Zeus bless your flight _(who am I kidding, you have Jason)_  and Artemis not hit you with her quinque arrows before Apollo picks you up. Thank you, and goodnight everyone. Unless anyone is going to be up in about three hours, I'd recommend saying your goodbyes now."

Yoshimura turned to Kaneki.

"Oh, and before I forget, you must have questions regarding the One-Eyed Owl, correct?"

"Hai..."


	6. VI | Solitaire

**B A C K B I T E R**   

 

 

"Your name was Hide, right?"

Hide lifted his eyes from the grass, dropping the dandelion he'd been ripping to shreds as he contemplated the fact that one day he, Kaneki, and everyone else he knew and loved would all be dead. He hoped that he and Kaneki would at least die together.

The guy who spoke appeared to be a couple years younger, and he recalled seeing him at the bonfire the night before.

"Name's Percy."

'Percy' sat down next to him, crossing his legs and pulling another of the weeds from the ground, twirling it between his fingers with a distant look in his eyes.

"Calypso mentioned something to me about you having the sword Backbiter."

_Calypso glared at him, the fire in her eyes unrivaled by any explosion Leo may have been able to pull. The flames flickered between them, the tension seeming to fuel them further. Annabeth snapped her gaze between the two, all-seeing._

_"You promised! You promised you would come back for me and then **you forgot I existed!"**_

_"I'm sorry."_

_"Oh, guess what, I'm sorry too! Only, sorry, doesn't cut it."_

_The son of Poseidon allowed her to shove him to the ground, face against the dirt._

_"I hope you manage to learn something before you get inevitably killed by whoever the prophecy was referring to."_

"Yes."

"Mm?"

Hide spared a glance at the guy. He appeared to be around his own age, perhaps maybe less than a year older. His hair was a dark shade of brown, skin a tanned pale, and eyes a deep sea blue-green.

They were speaking Greek, though there was really no reason because of the new Hermes Translation. Annabeth and Reyna had forced Percy to learn it, using the excuse of "it's the easiest class you'll ever take, just do it and you'll sound 200% more awesome," or something like that. Hide had been taught by Apollo whenever the two both had free time, time spent with Kaneki not counting because in Hide's mind that was mandatory, and oh it was.

Hide hesitated a moment before softly asking, "Do you want to see it?"

Percy's eyes widened in shock and he stared at the son of Apollo as though he had sprouted a second head, dropping the dandelion.

"No, no, I just-"

Hide laughed.

"Hey, no, it's fine, man. Come on, let's head back to my cabin."

  
My cabin. He liked the sound of that.

He smiled and extended his hand, helping the powerful demigod to his feet before taking off, leaving him standing over the hill, overlooking the water's edge.

 

_Dad, please don't let this end in tragedy._

 

  **D I S A G R E E M E N T**

 

 

"Onii-chan isn't that bad!"

Hinami and Ayato were in Cabin Three, sorting through all that the Manager and the others had packed for them.

"How would you know? That half-breed disgusts me."

She glared at Touka's little brother, fuming. Why, exactly, did he find it acceptable to insult away at a person he didn't even know?!

_If Ayato-kun mistreats onii-chan in any way, Ayato-kun will have 'Tartarus' to pay._

"i- s-o -ing, don't you get it?"

She looked at him quizzically.

"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What'd you say?"

"Nevermind," Hinami could hear the irritation rolling off his tongue in waves.

She sighed, lifting up another shirt and tossing it in the second-to-top drawer.

 

**W H O  I S  S H E**

 

_"Annabeth."_

_"Yes?"_

_Piper grabbed the former's arm, pulling her back into the shadows cast behind the cabins, too close to the campers for comfort yet too far from the woods for the tree nymphs to hear._

_"I saw her again in katoptris."_

_"Her?"_

_"Her."_

_The daughter of Athena took a moment to just look at her face, taking in the worry, noticing how she seemed to plan every movement down to the tiniest of fractions._

_"What was happening?"_

_"She was meeting with a ghoul named Rize, something was said about the '11th Ward.'"_

_Annabeth nodded in understanding._

_"Ōta City, Tokyo."_

_Damn you and your geography skills, just listen for once and don't make me feel un-Athena-y._

_"I think she may have once known Kaneki, or, at least, that's based off what I've seen so far. Can you ask him about her sometime?"_

_Annabeth nodded._

_"Sure, although I think he's with Chiron right now. I think they said they were discussing the recent rising numbers of ghoul attacks everywhere, or something like that. I might get a chance to ask him after dinner, if you'd like."_

_"Thanks."_

_They both stood there for a moment, basking in the shade as the afternoon sun shone hot and bright above._

_Thank you._

 

 

**P A S T  T H E  P A S T**

 

 

Checkers. That was the name she had decided to go by.

"Ahn, you have no idea how much the sight of your guts turns me on~"

She licked her lips, the movement concealed behind her full-face, currently-blank chalk-white mask. Yes, the name fit her checkered, headless bodysuit.

She dug the feels of her feet into the cement, drawing in a breath as she released her bikaku, throwing herself through the air and slicing through the investigators before they could so much as scream. Blood splattered across the brick wall.

She leant down, catching a few drops on her clothed fingertips and touching them to her uncovered lips. Her eyes, nostrils, lips, ears, and hair were the only parts of her visible.

She flicked out a tongue, tasting the juicy red substance. It was delicious.

**"I want more."**

"Calm down, Checkers," someone called from the distance.

She raised her head and threw it back over her shoulder, bending slightly so as to see the figure clad in gold make it's way towards her.

"But why calm down when we can have more fun?"


	7. VII | In Which the Sun Shines Despite the Looming Threat

**E M O T I O N S  F T.  Y O R I K O**

 

Yoriko slumped over in her rolling chair, eyes downcast as she clicked the end of her pen again and again.

_Touka-chan._

 

Click.

Click.

Click.

So many texts, all sent one by one. Perhaps at different times, perhaps at the same. She could no longer distinguish between the two.

 

_It doesn't matter how long I have to look **I will find you.**_

 

 

**W H A T  S H I N E S  F R O M  T H E  H I D D E N  B L A D E**

 

 

The sword gleamed in the evening light, reflecting rays across the cabin. Percy let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding.

_Backbiter._

"Percy, oi, Percy!"

He blinked, snapping back to attention from where he'd been staring, to see Hide frowning at him in a concerned manner.

"You okay there?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Just... uh..."

Hide nodded in understanding, not needing Percy to explain, for which the son of Poseidon was eternally grateful.

"How'd you get it anyway?"

It was a true question, though it did manage to break the thick silence hanging over the two. How exactly did a son of Apollo get a sword that they had all deemed lost forever, forged by a son of Hermes?

"Oh, right," Hide rubbed the back of his neck subconsciously, "I probably should've been prepared for that question. Basically," he shrugged, "dad stopped by one day while I was staring at my giant maps of where Kaneki had been and might be and told me I would need this sword later on, as well as mentioning that it was named Backbiter and could do more than the average demigod's sword. He also asked me to go get it upgraded, which is why you can see a bit of quinque steel around the edges, and gave a completely hopeless haiku and basically left."

"Oh."

Yeah, that sounded like Apollo.

"Have you ever met Artemis?"

"Aunt Artemis? Yeah, I asked her to tell me if she saw Kaneki anywhere. That's part of how I got my information, though I did also work as a message boy for the CCG..."

"That must be awkward."

"Heh, you've got no idea."

The two talked on and on, only ending their conversation when it was time to gather for dinner in the mess hall pavilion, at which point they separated to go to their own cabin's tables.

 

 

**C O M I N G  G A M E**

 

 

"So, who do you think's gonna win capture the flag on Friday?"

"Eh, what? You're already betting?"

"Well, it's obviously going to be the Ares cabin, I mean come on! Clarisse was just given a new electric spear, there's no way she's going to accept losing!"

"Aren't the Ares and Nike cabin forming an alliance?"

"That's what I've heard."

"Hey, Lilia! Where are you going?!"

Hinami listened to the chatter coming from the Aphrodite cabin.

_What exactly is "capture the flag"?_

"Oh, nevermind! Anyways, how do you think the ghouls will do?"

"I have a feeling they'll perform great! Then again, we do have a few..," there was an obvious fake cough, "powerful demigods."

"Hah! Percy and Nico will utterly destroy them! And us as well! Aren't they working with the Apollo cabin, as well?"

"Ares vs Apollo, this should be interesting."

"Remember that time it was literally Athena vs Poseidon? The face Percy made was hilarious!"

"Yeah, but he was going up against approximately three-fifths of the camp."

"Irene, your Athena is showing again."

"I'm fairly certain that if I were a daughter of Athena I would be in the Athena cabin right now."

"Damn gurl, sassy!"

"Please don't start."

 

 

**T E X T S  F R O M  Y O R I K O**

 

 

_Yoriko: Touka-chan, you missed school!_

_Yoriko: Touka-chaaaaaaaan, answer Yoriko-chan._

_Yoriko: TOUKA-CHAN, YORIKO-CHAN IS IN YOUR ROOM NOW WHERE ARE YOU?!_

_Yoriko: Speaking of which, where is Hinami-chan?_

_Yoriko: Is Touka-chan somewhere with Hinami-chan?_

_Yoriko: Koma-san had to let Yoriko-chan in, is everything all right Touka-chan?_

 

_Yoriko: Touka-chan, you've been gone for three days!_

_Yoriko: Three whole days! You haven't tried to talk to Yoriko-chan or anything!_

_Yoriko: Yoriko-chan has been texting you non-stop._

_Yoriko: Please find some time to text Yoriko-chan back._

_Yoriko: Touka-chan..._

 

_Yoriko: Touka-chan._

_Yoriko: Please answer!_

_Yoriko: Where are you?_

_Yoriko: Fine, even if you don't tell Yoriko-chan, Yoriko-chan will find you._

_Yoriko: Yoriko-chan promises she will find you._

_Yoriko: Yoriko-chan doesn't care about the secret, Yoriko-chan will find you and you will not run away, Touka-chan!_

_Yoriko: Promise Yoriko-chan you won't run away._

_Yoriko: Please..._

_Yoriko: Yoriko-chan just wants to see Touka-chan again._

 

 

_Yoriko: Yoriko-chan saw Touka-chan enter Anteiku, now Touka-chan should really look at her damn texts._


	8. VIII | Daily Life After a Text-Talk Prophecy of Death

**2 . 0**

 

 

"You know, I've always had a thing for card games. You draw, you pass, but in the end, everything is left up to probability. Probability which I," a laugh, "can control at will. Though, I know you've never been particularly lucky when it comes to there sorts of games. Why don't you roll a die?"

The two of them were in a dark room with a single table and two chairs, a couple of games stacked up in the corner, one board already thrown across the table. Soft moonlight filtered through a broken window, blowing torn old curtains through the room, dust spinning in the air.

The name of the girl was Nadette, Nadette Wolf. She was a transfer student from Germany, just happening to be 'lucky' enough to end up dating the most... classical game-obsessed American ghoul she'd ever met. The game obsessor had teal hair and skin that seemed to be different depending on where you looked, mismatched gold and hazel eyes. Nadette had dark skin, lavender-bleached hair, and light blue eyes.

"Ich will nicht deine dummen Spiele zu spielen."

As well as a rebellious mouth, apparently.

"Hmm, what was that, liebe? You don't want to play? Come now, don't be such a bore!"

The teal-haired goddess pouted her signature pout before grabbing the poor girl's collars, yanking her roughly forward. As it was, the two were currently trying to decide on how their next victim would respond to Jess, or, if going by her ghoulish alias, Checkers. For them, this was a normal activity where they'd use each other to figure out how best to meet their goals with particular people. It would usually end in sex, naturally, because the two just couldn't seem to keep their clothes on when together.

"We wouldn't want you to see what insanity can do to a person, do we?"

She shook her head frantically, beginning to choke at the lack of air.

"Good, good! Excellent! So tell me, which game are you more familiar with? Chess or checkers?"

Nadette thought for a moment before answering, making sure she'd know what James Karl would say.

"While more people seem to know how to play checkers, I was raised playing chess on a near daily basis. Whatever you may be trying to show with your... display, has already probably gone through my head."

The goddess stopped laughing for a moment, before slowly beginning again like water starting to trickle over the side of a container: first slowly, then all at once.

"Whatever I'm trying to show? Dear oh dear, I've nothing to show! I've everything to show! I don't even know anymore, oh, wait, I never knew anyway!"

Nadette looked away.

_"Pathetic."_

"What was that? Am I pathetic?"

She was pulling her mask back over her face, cloak swinging lightly behind her though there was no breeze. Her voice was oddly soft, and she nodded.

"Yes, I suppose I am pathetic. Pathetic indeed. But, love, if there's one thing you should know," she brought a finger up in front of Wolf's lips to keep her from uttering a word, "it's the pathetic who are still alive at the end of the day."

 

 

**T H E  R E A L I T Y  O F  U S**

 

  _Name(s): Nagachika Hideyoshi, Kaneki Ken_

 

"Hey, Hide..?" Kaneki called out, trying to gather the blonde's attention.

"Mm?" Hide turned his head, watching the sun's rays flicker across his friend's face.

They had been strolling along the bottom of the hill that led to the Big House, trying to spend some time together, without any of the others.

"H-how did you find Aogiri's base?"

Hide pursed his lips, frowning for a moment before deciding on his answer.

"I'm not going to lie, Kaneki. I stuck a tracker on the bottom of Yamori Oomori's foot."

"Hide!" Kaneki gasped, turning to grab his friend's shoulders. "That could've gotten you killed!"

Hide stared into Kaneki's eyes, studying his face.

"Kaneki," he whispered, trying not to distance himself as he wanted to in this moment, "it's not- I couldn't just-." He hid his face in his hands for a moment, overcome by emotions despite his attempts not to be.

He took a shaky breath.

"I couldn't sit there while you were- I just couldn't."

He lifted his face again.

"Besides, I'm a son of Apollo, right?"

"Hide," Kaneki's voice was all the warning he needed.

"Yeah, yeah," he sighed, already knowing that Kaneki would stop at nothing to get him to speak. He dropped to the ground, pulling the now-white haired ghoul down with him, anxiously pulling at the grass.

"At first, after the accident with Rize, I had my suspicions about you being a ghoul. I'm, again, not going to lie, Kaneki, I was scared," Kaneki stiffened next to him, and Hide ran a hand down his back comfortingly, despite himself probably needing the most comfort at the moment, though just having Kaneki did pretty well on it's own.

A wall of fear seemed to be building itself up in the half-ghoul, churning waters threatening to spill over as he listened.

"But I wasn't scared because of what you're probably thinking. The idea of you being a ghoul, that wasn't scary. You know how my parents were never really home, right?"

Kaneki nodded.

"Well, I never really shared their names, either," Hide raised his eyes to stare at the sun, "on my mother's side, I was partly named after a CCG investigator she had admired, Washuu Yoshitoki. If you continue to go back to his father, you end up with Tsuneyoshi Washuu, and then Yoshiu Washuu. After that, there's something I hadn't actually known, and I doubt she did either. Buuuut," he moved his hands a bit as he spoke, "we're related to them. My name, in fact, carries on the 'yoshi' that Matsuri Washuu, Yoshitoki Washuu's son, didn't exactly get."

Kaneki continued nodding, listening along as his mind committed what Hide was saying to a form of memory palace, as demonstrated by Sherlock Holmes. Though, Hide's own was much, much vaster. In the non-literary fields, of course. Kaneki would always win there.

"I only figured this out when I went to work as a part-timer in the CCG, eventually working beside Koutarou Amon and Mado Akira," he readjusted the way he was sitting to lean forward, elbows on his knees and hands dangling somewhat in front of-between his legs.

"That'll be important in my explanation further in, as I hadn't known it yet in the beginning. When we were in that alley with Nishiki," he smiled at Kaneki, "thank you for protecting me. After that kick, I doubt even I could've done anything."

"You.. remember that?"

Hide nodded, head shifting back to it's original position.

"After that, my suspicions were confirmed. Whenever I went in for coffee in Anteiku, it was both to just be able to hang out with you and make sure you were okay, and to gather as much info as I could on your coworkers," he scratched the back of his head subconsciously, "Touka-chan can be pretty scary, can't she?"

"If you were awake during the Nishiki 'incident' then you would've already known that."

"Shh, lemme talk. Anyways, I was watching the entire time as Yamori kidnapped you. I recognized him after how I always played detective, and had already pinned the location to what I then knew of as Aogiri's base at the time, or at least I think that's what it was, not really certain, never really was, on my tablet. I had already relayed the information to the CCG, and was already, at that point, working as a part-timer there. I had actually been working with Amon and Akira on the Cotton Candy Ghoul's case, which was something that had never been done before, but yeah. Basically, Marude had somehow figured out it was me who sent the info on Aogiri, and then decided to have me help out on that. Moving on, around a week or so later we finally ended up raiding Aogiri, and I split off to help search for you. If Amon-san and Akira-san are still alive, chances are high that they got a promotion. Juuzou too, he's the guy I fought while you were unconscious, sorry, forgot to mention it. Speaking of which, the CCG must know I betrayed them and  _this is terrifying okay I think I probably shouldn't have done that._ "

"Hide.. you knew. You knew the entire time, and  **didn't think to tell me?!"**

Kaneki was glaring across at him, and Hide winced.

"No, no, now you've got it wrong. I was waiting until you were willing to tell me."

"Oh," Kaneki blushed, "sorry."

"Nah, man," Hide grinned, "it's fine!"

 

The two chatted the rest of the night away until the harpies were out, at which point they ended up running for their lives back to the cabins and hiding in Percy's, where the son of Poseidon was already snoring away while Hinami stared at them worriedly.

"Onii-chan and onii-chan are late," she muttered to herself more than them, rushing forwards to pull them in.

"Sorry, Hinami-chan," Kaneki apologized.

"It's okay," she looked down at her feet for a moment, before smiling up at the two of them, "did onii-chans finally admit their feelings to eachother?"

"W-w-what?!"

"Everyone already knows, so Kaneki-niichan and Hide-niichan really should just get on with it and start dating."

The two stared at each other for a moment, telepathically confirming that the other was okay with this. Kaneki sent Hide a mental eyeroll.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, with Hinami cheering in the background and Percy snoring even further in the background, they slowly moved their lips closer and closer together until they kissed.

The kiss quickly became a bit more than a peck when Hide teasingly ran his tongue along Kaneki's lower lip, Kaneki opening up so Hide could push in. Hinami's cheering got slower as she curiously watched, when suddenly the two split up.

"Oh, Kaneki! I forgot to tell you something!" Hide suddenly exclaimed, Percy waking and sitting with an expression that read 'wtf are you two doing I'm trying to sleep.'

"What was it, Hide?" Kaneki asked, dread beginning to pool in his stomach once more.

"Takizawa already beat you on the spoon-feeding thing when he gave me some of his curry back in the CCG."

"..."

"I think that's all."

"I'm going back to bed," Percy muttered, flopping back down onto his pillow and pulling his blanket up over his face as Hinami began to laugh.

 

 

**T H E  R E M A I N S  O F  S T O L L**

 

 

"Okay, who thought it was funny to drop twelve spiders into the Athena cabin?"

No one raised their hands. Annabeth let out an exasperated sigh.

"You know what? I'm done. I give up. We shall track you down and we will not stop until you jump at the sound of the wind blowing next to your ear. I'm going to bed. Goodnight, don't let the spiders invade your dreams and fill them with images of yourself being surrounded by them, drowning in spiders and unable to get out as your blood gets sucked from your body until you're nothing but a brittle, brown leaf lying on the ground during fall. Goodnight."

She turned around, marching back from the amphitheater to the Athena Cabin.

_If it was Stoll, then perhaps I would be glad, rather than mad._


	9. VIII | The Sunflower Stained By Blood

**M A S K  M A K E R**

  

"Hmm... personally, I'm a big fan of J.K. Rowling's  _Harry Potter_ series."

"Is that so? Any reason in particular?"

Uta's voice was a calming, soothing presence in the midst of all the empty-eyed masks staring from nearly every angle.

"I'm not sure, I suppose it just feels like... home. In the same sort of way Anteiku and Camp Half-Blood do."

"I see. What would your house be?"

"Ravenclaw, I mean, Athena is my mom... Hazel would probably be in Hufflepuff, and I have no doubts that Jason is a Gryffindor."

"You seem to know your friends well."

"Yeah."

They fell into a comfortable silence, the only sounds being Touka, Hazel, and Jason in the background, as well as Uta scribbling down some ideas and adjusting the sizes a bit.

"And... let's see. How many beads are there on your necklace?"

"Eleven."

"Do you mind if I copy the designs for reference?"

"Sure."

Annabeth spun on her stool to face the ghoul once more as he copied the etchings with precise swipes of lead upon paper.

"Right, got 'em," he turned to smile at Hazel, "what type of mask would Daughter Death prefer?"

 

 

**I N  T H E  C H A O T I C  M E A N T I M E**

 

 

"Candy-saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!"

"Nooooooooo!'

"What are you even trying to do?!"

"How am I supposed to know?! I'm the Cotton Candy ghoul, bitch!"

The currently-pinkette was swinging between the skyscrapers of Tokyo, mask muffling her voice moreso even than the wind that carried it far, far away. She suddenly drew in a large breath, as well as her limbs, flipping over and shooting herself down to the busy streets below.

" _Sie sind die essen, wir sin die **JAEGER!!**_ "

"Did you just start singing the opening to _Attack on Titan_?"

"Yes!"

She extended her legs, making it seem as though she were about to dive fullforcedly into the ground, before catching herself and flipping forward, reaching out her kagune to throw herself forward.

"Hey, wait up! We've got a CCG helicopter coming in from that direction!"

"Fuck the CCG!"

 

 

 **A N O T H E R  T E X T  W I T H  Y O R I K O**  

 

 

_Touka: Touka-chan is waiting for Yoriko-chan upstairs._

_Yoriko: Touka-chan also has a lot of explaining to do._

 

 

**K I R I S H I M A  -  D I  A N G E L O  P H O T O  T I M E**

 

 

"You, stand right there. No, not there.  _That_ was deliberate. Can you two not just  _stand still?!"_

"Correct! Affirmative! Right! Why do I sound like the Gourmet right now?! This is disgusting. Nico help!"

Nico hid his face in his hands as he laughed at the ukaku ghoul's antics.

"It's just one bloody picture, stand still!"

"No can do," Ayato saluted.

" **Yes can do!** "

 

 

**I N C O M I N G**

 

 

Nadette stepped back after checking to make sure the fake license plate was secure. 'Phaidra' grinned at her through the truck's window. She grimaced, before easing into the driver's seat.

"Nadette~, ready to have some fun?"

"No."

The ghoul -or, at least that's what Nadette thought she was, she smelled strange- pouted.

"Why not?"

She flashed her kakugan briefly, long enough to give the blue-haired sadist shivers. Of course, it had no effect. Her eyes went back to the road as she pulled out and joined the cars racing about.

"I don't like playing around with small fries."

"Ohoho, these aren't going to be small fries, they'll be anything but that."

"Will they now?"

She was becoming amused, her eyes gleaming in the rearview mirror.

"How much do you know of Greek Mythology?"

 

 

**C A P T U R E  T H E  F L A G**

 

 

"Right. Kaneki, Hide, Hinami, and Ayato. All of you are now in Percy's group. Remember, your main objective is defending the flag, though if help is necessary we will be requiring backup. Got it?"

"Hai. I mean yes."

The shadows of Piper's helmet hid her smirk.

"Let's win this for Aphrodite!"

Kaneki grasped at his head, willing away the memories of the dream.

_Not now._

**_"Aphrodite!"_  **The cheer grew and multiplied, half the camp all yelling out the same name. From the opposite side of the forest came their opponent -the Ares cabin-'s retaliating chant.

 

The groups split up, Percy leading them to where the flag already stood rooted in the ground in the center of four great oaks.

"Everyone scale the trees. Find a decent hiding spot within. Hide and I'll be under the rock layer, 'kay? If someone runs around, we'll trip them up and then you all overwhelm them. Remember, switch between the trees often enough that if anyone is watching, they won't know who's where."

"Understood."

Hide and Percy met eyes for a moment before they forced themselves down to the ground, crouching under the rock that protruded from the sides of the clearing from every angle imaginable. The flag's hiding spot was meant to be fairly obvious, but still, it was a risky move even with both Nico and Percy, as well as the ghouls on the team.

It wasn't long before the sound of footsteps hit Ayato's ears, and he signalled to the others to let them know. Feet brushed against grass before the sound of sandals against smooth rock could be heard, and they each signalled back.

There were five of them, only their legs visible as they hopped back onto the ground, walking up to the flag.

"Wait," Clarisse ordered, "this was way too easy."

Way too easy indeed.

Percy struck out with Riptide from one side, Hide appearing a moment later with Backbiter on the other to stop the five from fleeing.

"Is this really the best you could do, Jackson?" Clarisse asked as she dodged another swipe of his sword, raising her spear as a defense before thrusting it forward, where it was promptly caught by one of Kaneki's kagune as he leapt, stretching, much like a cat from the tree. He made a mini somersault in the air, landing on both feet and throwing his balance forward so as to not fall back, doing a forwards cartwheel to kick away the dagger of another.

Ayato twisted as he fell, using his wings to catch himself right above someone, probably scaring the hell out of them while Hinami pried away as many weapons as possible, including the one Kaneki had thrown carelessly into the air. The opposing team was quickly reduced to nothing but five weaponless, exhausted demigods.

"Gods damnit, Jackson."

"What? But you asked for the best I could do."

"Shut up."

The flag still stood in the same place, another person now wrapped around it, checkerboard bodysuit covering her completely, the only exception being the holes cut around her eyes, which were surrounded by heavy checkerboard-styled makeup. Her eyelashes were long and dark around a pair of silver eyes.

"So I just have to carry it to the other side to win, right?"

She sounded like a child, a very, very scary child. None of them recognized it.

"Who the Hades are you?!" Clarisse practically shouted, trying to grasp her spear back from where Hinami held everything just out of reach.

"So that's Daughter Ghoul's famous hybrid kagune... it's adorable, really."

She giggled, the structure of a smile mildly terrifying as her dopey eyes seemed to shine in the part of the forest that in this hour received no light.

"Can't you tell what they call me just by looking?"

"Checkerboard?"

She frowned.

"No, just Checkers."

She jumped forward to stand in front of the daughter of Ares, wielding the flag like Clarisse and her spear.

"This is how you held it, right?"

She turned to Percy.

"I'm sorry, but these flags are Checker'd now."

"Checker'd?"

She was already gone. From the distance could be heard a terrified scream.


	10. X | The Game Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In case you noticed, the demigods and ghouls do indeed know that shit is about to go down, but they have no idea that it is literally Chaos about to end them all. They won't actually figure out how to fight until the sequel, Demighoul:re.

**C H E E S Y  I N T R O D U C T I O N S**

 

"Yoriko-cha-- _mmph!_ "

The brunette clung tightly to the purple-haired ghoul, not noticing Hazel and Annabeth eating cheese puffs and drinking sparkling water/mountain dew on the sofa. Touka tried to escape, choking out something about how she preferred  _not_ being strangled to death, but the only full-human in her apartment above Anteiku was relentless.

"Let _gooooo,_ " she complained, shoving her away and massaging her aching sides.

Yoriko simply laughed.

Touka glared for a moment, before pointing to Hazel and Annabeth. Yoriko turned to wave a bit, which was returned by Annabeth, as Hazel was too busy stuffing her face with the cheese puffs.

"Blondie over there's Annabeth, cheese puff girl is Hazel."

Yoriko smiled, closing her eyes and tilting her head to the side.

"Kon'nichiwa! Yoroshiku onegai shi masu!"

"Kon'nichiwa!" the two chorused back, Hazel already reaching for another handful of cheese puffs as Annabeth elbowed her hard in the stomach.

Touka laughed uncomfortably. Mission come-up-with-a-lie-and-tell-it-as-you-go had begun.

_If only I could use the exchange program as an excuse, damn those two._

 

 

 **T H E  G O L D E N  G I R L  I N  T H E  F L A M E S**  

 

 

"Fire!" someone screamed.

Clarisse and Percy exchanged a glance.

_Great._

The groups took off, merging together into one. Hinami passed back weapons to their original carriers from the center, Hide and Kaneki flanking everyone from the sides.

"What the Tartarus?"

Hide turned to look towards the person the words had come from. It was a semi-tall guy with short, dark hair, one from Clarisse's squad, and he was staring right at Ayato.

Ayato, who had spread his ukaku, and was now taking to the air, blasting away the branches of trees that just so happened to be in his way.

Percy winced, feeling bad for the tree nymphs of those particular trees.

He looked to Kaneki, silently asking him to follow. Kaneki nodded at him before leaping up, releasing his rinkaku and grabbing onto the tree trunks to propel himself up and into the air.

"What are they doing?" Clarissa asked, not even the slightest short of breath from all the running.

"I don't know what Ayato's doing," Percy replied darkly, "but Kaneki just went after him. While you were trying to get the flag, did you notice the smoke beginning to form around him?"

Her eyes widened.

"I thought I was seeing things."

" _PERCY!_ "

Percy turned to face the direction he was running in just in time to see Grover coming towards him at an almost unbelievable speed, turning to run back in the same direction next to the demigod.

"Hey, Grover. 'Sup?"

"Need you at the lake," the satyr wheezed.

Percy nodded, bracing himself.

"Just like the good old days, huh?"

 

"Oh dear gods."

 _Personally_ , Hide thought, _that did nothing to sum up the pure destruction that'd taken place in what must've been only mere moments_.

The fire was everywhere, a figure clad in gold standing in the center, head tilted towards the sky. The lake water controlled by Percy was doing nothing to quench it, in fact, it seemed to just be powering it further. There truly was no smoke, nothing but a watery, wavy haze to cover the stars and moon that glowed bright from afar.

Another figure dropped onto the first, a three-dimensional checkerboard shaped like a human.

Checkers.

She wrapped her arms around the golden's chest in an X, spider lilies sprouting from the dying flames around them. Piper grit her teeth before letting out the order to charge. Katoptris cut through the plants that seemed to never stop regrowing, red flying through the air in all directions.

The others soon joined in, Percy with Riptide, Hide with Backbiter, and the recently-rejoined Kaneki with his kagune.

After what seemed like hours but was in reality only a few minutes, they made it to the center.

It was empty.

 

 

**T H E  M A S K S  T H E Y  S H A L L  W E A R**

 

 

"Uta-san," Touka greeted as the mask maker made his way over to one of the stools, placing a cardboard box on the counter and leaning his elbows onto the bar.

"Are these Hazel, Jason, and Annabeth's masks?"

He nodded, standing again to follow her through the door labeled 'Workers Only.' Once past, he removed his sunglasses, allowingg his ghoulish eyes to show once more.

"Oi, Touka-chan, you get dish duty tomorrow," Nishiki reminded her as she passed.

"Dish duty was given to the demigods, remember?" she smirked.

He jumped slightly in his seat at the end of the sofa.

"Wait, when did this happen? Did I seriously wash all those cake plates for nothing?!"

"Yes."

He groaned, throwing his head back against the wall.

"Damn demi-brats..."

Jason walked in right at the perfect moment, followed by Hazel and Annabeth. Nishiki grabbed for the nearest item -one of Kaneki's books- and chucked it at the blonde's head.

"Shitty Sna--"

Jason caught it millimeters away from hitting his eye. Nishiki pushed his glasses further up his nose, eyes communicating that he accepted the son of Zeus's challenge. Jason smirked, before flipping the book over to read the cover.

"Dear Kafka, huh? I might just have to read this sometime..."

Touka snatched the book away, holding it under her arm for good measure. If Kaneki found out someone had thrown one of his favourite books... it would not be a pretty sight, to say the least. Especially if he pulled a repeat of that night Nishiki had tried to eat Hide.

Uta took a seat next to the ginger. He leaned forward, slicing through the tape on the box now sat on the low coffee table in front of the couch. He reached an arm in, removing it with three new masks.

"I hope these are to your liking," he passed one to Hazel, one to Jason, and the last to Annabeth. "I tried to match them somewhat to your godly parents."

The first mask covered the top of the wearer's face; the forehead, eyes, and nose. It was in the shape of an olive tree, the trunk running down the curve of the nose, the leafy top covering the forehead. The eyes were shaded by a thin black fabric so as to allow the wearer to see out, but no one else to see in. Around them were little symbols: the designs of the beads on Annabeth's necklace.

The second mask was literally a skull made of gems, the hollow eyes covered once more by the black fabric. All of the eyes on each mask was. Almost the entire face, the exception being the sides of the face under the cheekbones, was covered. The jaw of the gem skull was adjustable, allowing it to move when Hazel would like to speak.

The third mask was bright and feathery, the feathers all of natural colours. There was a beaked nose with little symbols of lightning bolts etched onto the sides, room for Jason's glasses beneath the mask itself, concealed by feathers reddish-brownish feathers extending much like way-oversized Egyptian-styled eyeliner. When worn, it would cover a person's entire face, as well as hair, with a layer of feathers that fanned downwards in the top and in the back of the head much like Loki's hair from the Avengers, feathers curving around, but never covering the ears.

The three inspected their masks, Jason placing his on his face and smirking at the other two, though they couldn't see it.

"I am Birdman," he announced proudly.

"'Birdman' is going to get his ass kicked," Touka muttered from her position near the door.

"They seem expensive..." Annabeth finally murmured, gesturing to Hazel's for reference.

"No worries," Uta reassured, "Reyna-chan already paid for them in imperial gold. I wonder..." he trailed off, beginning to space out.

_What kind of masks could be made with Imperial gold?_

"All of them cover the eyes," all attention snapped to Hazel, "why?"

Uta grinned, raising a hand to point at his kakugan.

"As Yoshimura-san has already probably informed you, a ghoul's kakugan would become visible when hunting or fighting. Demigods, if I'm correct, have no kakugan. If you're going up against an investigator, you'll want your eyes covered both to avoid recognition and the realization that you're no ghoul. When fighting a ghoul, however, your opponent will undoubtably already know that you're human."

"Oh."

That made sense.

Touka cleared her throat, book still tucked safely away under her arm.

"If you're done, I need to go drop this off in Kaneki's room and grab my mask. Anyone wanting to go out tonight?"

"Hell yeah!" Annabeth yelled, Hazel and Jason jumping away at the sudden loud noise. She turned to stare at the two.

"You two want to?"

They nodded, muttering "sure," and, "yeah."

Touka smiled.

"Well then, it's settled. Meet me back in here at 12. Cya around, Uta-san," she waved at the mask maker before opening the door and stepping through, before it slid shut once more.

_Click._

Their first night outside Anteiku in the world of the ghouls was about to begin.


	11. XI | Aftermath

**K U R U S U**

 

Hazel readjusted the mask for the final time, before following Touka out into the night. She could feel Jason and Annabeth at her heels. The three were wearing all black; dark hoods (with the exception of Jason) keeping the top and backs of their heads out of sight. They ran from alleyway to alleyway, searching for what-they did not know.

It soon became evident that Touka was relentless, moreso even than when attempting to teach them to make coffee. Annabeth had been lucky then, managing to brew something half-okay on her first try. The other two... not so much. At least, that was, until they'd gotten theirs asses kicked by the scary purplette. Not long after that, they'd learned their lesson.

"I would be wondering what Touka-chan and the noobs are doing out this late, but I'm fairly sure of my idea," a voice came from ahead.

Touka paused, stiffening, shooting the three a glance. They stopped their running, obeying her silent command to stay behind.

"Kurusu..." it was evident that whoever this guy was, neither were very fond of each other. If at all. Which was doubtful.

"Ah, Touka-chan, how lovely it is to see you again after all these years," he stepped out from behind a couple of bins and boxes.

He had pale blonde, undercut hair, similar to Jason's own nowadays. The only difference was that while Jason's was mostly flipped onto one side, this guy had his parted down the middle in a style similar to Levi Ackerman's from _Attack on Titan_. His voice had to be the most  _arrogant-sounding_ voice Hazel had ever heard.

"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be in the sixth ward, or somewhere?!"

He laughed, and it was more annoying even than Tsukiyama's, on the occasions that he stopped by Anteiku  _"for coffee, not for the interesting smell that you demigods certainly give off."_ Hazel shivered at the thought of the perv.

"Now, Touka-chan, what would be the fun in that? I only wanted to visit my old pals the Kirishima twins-although it's really too bad Ayato's gone to Aogiri, isn't it?"

"You smug bastard, Ayato's not even in the country at the moment!" she leapt forward, unleashing a torrent of ukaku bullets where he'd just been standing.

 

_It was night, Touka and her little brother having taken refuge in an alleyway from the cold streets where people still wandered about with their after-curfew cards._

_"Is otou-san really okay?" Ayato asked for what had to have been the tenth time that day, curling in on his injured torso._

_"Of course he is, he'll be fine no matter what the CCG can do," Touka reassured, pulling him closer in an attempt for warmth._

_He refused the easy answer._

_"But what if he isn't?"_

_"Ayato," Touka reminded, "if the investigators didn't kill him, then he's just being held captive, and one day we'll break him out. Deal?"_

_"Deal."_

_"Oh, it's the Kirishima twins," the mocking tone could only belong to one ghoul they'd met in the sixth ward so far._

_"Aido," Touka muttered, tucking the blanket further around Ayato, who squirmed in confusion._

_"How've things been for you two? I know someone who can help you, if you'd just-"_

_"Get out of my sight before I tear you to shreds, you perverted bastard."_

_The ghoul laughed uncomfortably._

_"Come on now, Kirishima-chan. There's no need to-"_

_He was forced to leap out of the way as a few of the red spikes hit the wall behind him._

_"I keep trying to help but you two are just so stub-"_

_Another shower of the quickly-vanishing shards. He looked up fearfully to see her suddenly standing over him, shoving him to the ground._

_"Get out of here, Kurusu. Before I decide to take back my act of mercy."_

_His kakugan flared._

_"Really now, Touka-chan? How stupid do you think I am?"_

_A wall of blackened kagune erupted from his back, a marker clear as day of the deeds he performed._

_"I eat ghouls for breakfast, I always have. Do you really think you, without even the help of your little brother there, could take me on?"_

_"Are you willing to bet on it?"_

_"Hey!" it was one of the investigators from earlier, one of the ones who'd hurt Ayato. "There're three of them!"_

 

_"Hello Touka-chan, Ayato-kun."_

_"Get out of my sight, you sick, perverted bastard."_

_A laugh._

_"She was going to die anyway, so what's it matter if I used her to get a little off my mind?"_

_"What's it matter?" Touka repeated blankly, then, "What's it **matter?"**_

_She stood and turned simultaneously, digging her feet into the concrete to propel herself towards him. Her wing slashed at his chest, ripping the skin again and again, all within the same instance. He was too slow even to blink in the time it took for her to reduce his torso to shreds. He stumbled away, too devoid of energy by this point to even so much as summon his kagune, let alone his kakuja._

_"We trusted you to help us one time, and look where it got us," Touka walked towards the bright lights of the cars as they raced by outside the alley, ukaku dispersing in a red mist. She tilted her head back, eyes flickering from her kakugan to purple._

_"You chose to rape a dying woman. I don't care if she was our target, or if she was 'going to die anyway.' You're a sick, perverted, messed up bastard. If either Ayato or I so much as catch sight of a strand of hair from your head again, we will kill you. And there will be," she paused, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear, "no mercy."_

 

He simply laughed at the response, mask forming over his face. It was like several ribbons were stretching, tugging into place as a smooth, unbreakable, blank surface. Touka sliced her wing past his arm, almost managing to make a hit.

"Ah, come now Touka," he murmured, purposefully leaving off the honorific at the end, "even you can do better than that."

He leapt back, out of range.

"Ayato-kun never even left Aogiri, in fact, I believe he's buying Owl a new writing pen at this very moment."

"Huh?! What are you trying to say now?"

"Ayato-kun," he repeated, "is still with Aogiri," the glow of the buildings behind him illuminated him, making him light up much like Apollo.

"That's not possible, he stayed back with the others at camp," Jason reasoned.

Annabeth shot him a look, before an idea struck.

"Actually, that's very possible, if he had help from one of the Gods or monsters, or almost anyone really. If he were with Aogiri, though, I doubt a God or Goddess would help him, but if we assume he never did leave, they are still suspects. Actually, almost everyone is still a suspect. That is, if this guy is actually telling the truth, which is doubtful, to say the least."

Kurusu tilted his head to the side, confused.

"Gods or Goddesses? Hey, Touka-chan, what are the foreigners going on about?"

"Are devouring ghouls and humans too weak to fend you off, molesting children who did nothing wrong the  _only things you care about?! You messed up, sick, disgusting fucked up racist bastard- **just DIE ALREADY!"**_

Touka lunged towards him in rage, this time managing to rip off a fair portion of his forearm. He stared down at the blood as it dripped, rain beginning to shower down from the sky.

"Ugh, this is troublesome."

His non-kakuja kagune made it's appearance, a blunt koukaku running towards the ground, lying gently against his right arm. He looked up to the top of a building.

"Ayato- _kuuuun,_ " he sang out, "come out, come out, wherever you are!"

He licked his lips.

"Unless, of course, you're okay with me showing your sister and her little friends there a good time."

 

 

**A  C H E C K  O F F  H E R  L I S T**

**  
**

  

"Come on, Nadette, admit it, you enjoyed watching them rush about in a panic."

Nadette allowed a small, sadistic smile quirk of the lips to grace her face.

"See? It wasn't that bad!"

"It wasn't," she agreed.

"So," the teal-haired girl started, plopping down on her bed in their hotel room with a lollipop in her mouth, "wanna head down to the pool later?"

"Perhaps tomorrow," Nadette answered, quirk of the lips becoming a full-on _Sachiko Shinozaki_ grin.

She knew  _just_ how much Phaidra wanted to go to the pool, Nadette had no doubts about it.

"Uuuuuuuugh, we gotta do something!" she kicked her legs around, rolling over between the other's legs.

Nadette simply stared down at her for a moment, before pulling her up and yanking her shirt up off over her head.

"Then go take a shower. You're filthy."

 _"Nuuuuuuuu!_ "

 _"Yeeeeeeees,"_ Nadette shoved her off the queen-sized bed, rolling her eyes when she grumbled, landing on the floor.

The tealette stared up at her as Nadette turned her eyes back to the TV. Suddenly, a thought came to mind:

"Only if you join me."

"Wha- _ehhhh?!"_ Nadette choked on the coffee she had just taken a sip of, slamming it back down on the bedside table unintentionally hard.

"Take a shower with me. Or a bath, if you prefer. It doesn't matter," Phaidra smiled up innocently, coming to sit up in front of her again.

"Me? Take a bath or shower, with you?" Nadette gestured between the two.

Phaidra nodded expectantly.

Nadette looked at her in disbelief, before muttering out a, "you've got to be kidding me." She moved some of her long, dangling, straightened hair out of the way to better see her girlfriend.

"We just torched a forest, and now you want to have shower sex?"

"Yes, I see no reason not to."

"Unbelievable."

She sighed, closing the book she had been about to begin reading, and sat it off to the side. She stood up, Jess standing up behind her.

"Fine, fine, just don't make things awkward like last time."

Phaidra laughed at that.

"I'll try."

 

 

**A F T E R M A T H**

 

 

Kaneki stretched his arms above his head, cracking his joints and relaxing his muscles.

Ah, yes, that was right. Ayato was gone.

He rolled over, taking the thin blanket he was wearing with him. He could  _hear_ everyone else getting up, and that was the last thing he was looking forward to. The first, perhaps, was the food arrival from Anteiku.

 

_"But what about Hide?" Rize asked, seeming to appear out of nowhere._

_"No, no, I already surpassed you. Go away."_

_"He does seem like he'd be delicious, don't you think?"_

_"We are not having this conversation. Besides, you already tried to make me eat him that time with Nishiki."_

_"But he does, just admit it. Percy's abs-mm."_

_"Okay, no. Besides, they don't even have a full scent. Just this very toned down -in Percy's case watered down- humany half-scent. Not even Tsukiyama tried to eat them."_

_"You don't know what he could've been planning."_

_He laughed._

_"Really? Tsukiyama is all big moves and grandieur. He doesn't sit back and wait, he goes full on psychopath and plans out his next action and goes through with it."_

_"He's not a psychopath, he's a highly functioning sociopath. Do your research."_

_"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Now I really have a feeling I should get up because something important's going to happen and I'm going to miss it."_

 

Kaneki unrolled, then rolled differently, hitting the floor and somehow managing not to mess up the bed. He stood, rubbing at his eyes slightly and taking a look around.

 

_"Great, now everyone except me is gone."_

 

He unzipped the zipper on his briefcase suitcase -very funny there Manager- and reached out to grab a pair of black shorts and his orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt. Throwing a glance at the clock on the wall, he realized what time it was.

 

_"Oh shit!"_

_"You'e funny when you're panicking."_

_"Shut the fuck up."_

 

He threw on the top and ran out the door, not even bothering to try to smooth down his messy bedhead. As he turned his head, he could see everyone entering the Mess Hall. He sped up, not wanting for a single moment to be late.

 

_"We could be killed, or worse, **expelled** ," Rize quoted, a random stick appearing in her hand from literally nowhere._

_"We are in neither the time nor the place, and where did you even get a random stick?"_

_She shrugged._

_"I don't know, somewhere in your memory."_

 

Finally, after what seemed like forever, he reached the doors.

 

_"Aww, you aren't even panting. I was looking forward to-"_

_"Again, shut the fuck up."_

_"That's not a nice thing to say to your girlfriend."_

_"I'm fairly certain it's obvious that we broke up a long time ago. Perhaps, oh, maybe when you tried to eat me and then died?"_

_"I died before it could become official."_

_"Yeah, no, we broke up. I'm with Hide now."_

_"Are you? Officially? You're too nervous to even tell him how you feel. If you finally do get the courage, though, I just want you to be fully aware that I ship it."_

_"Ugh, I'm ignoring you."_

_"This isn't Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter, dear. There is no block and there is no ignore. I am in your head."_

_"I am still ignoring you."_

He pushed them open, thankful to find himself not near as late as he'd originally thought, but not early enough for everyone to still be getting food as he stepped in. Instead, they were too busy talking. And eating. The Anteiku package was sitting across from Percy, where Hinami sipping on a mug of hot coffee. He walked over, going to sit next to her.

Hinami smiled up at him, but he could clearly see that she was worried. Part of her hair appeared to have been singed off, the rest falling normally across her shoulders. Percy himself looked utterly exhausted, dark bags having formed under his eyes. Or rather, wearing reverse smoky eyes.

"Good morning," the son of Poseidon greeted gruffly, stuffing his face with a blue pancake.

"Good morning," Kaneki replied, giving the same to Hinami, who returned it with her own cheerful,

"Good morning, onii-chan!"

He wasn't quite sure when he'd sat down, but the table looked like a really good napping place, as far as he was concerned. After the fire the previous night, it'd been hard for everyone to fall asleep. Nonetheless, some of them managed it and discussions with cabin leaders were postponed until the evening, after dinner.

He grabbed the package, slipping it down to lay it on his lap. It was bad enough that everyone here knew he ate people, they didn't need to see where the human meat was kept.

"So, you're both going to be at the meeting, right?" Percy asked the two.

"Mm-hm," Hinami nodded, Kaneki slowly sliding down onto the table, eyes sliding shut.

This prompted a small laugh from the two. Kaneki twitched in his evident once-again sleep.

Hinami's face turned serious.

"Onii-chan doesn't seem to have realized it, but Takatsuki Sen's books seem to have a lot in common with rumors going around in the ghoul's world in Japan. It's almost concerning, actually, how much they have in common. It took until the night at the campfire for me to finally realize it myself, but they do."

Her smile returned to her face.

"Speaking of which, Onii-chan and Annabeth-oneechan haven't yet had a chance to talk about books, have they?"

Percy shook his head, marveling at how little time it had taken the little ghoul to begin calling Annabeth her sister.

"No, they haven't," he looked towards the door, where campers were already beginning to file out. There'd been no need for announcements, as they were given out last night after the fire. "Ah, looks like it's time to get a move on," he poked Kaneki, "is he gonna wake up?"

Hinami shrugged, beginning to poke the sleeping white-haired half-ghoul as well.

The two just stuck to that for a few minutes, trying to see if he would perhaps wake up if they poked hard enough. He didn't wake up. Or, at least, that was until Hideyoshi Nagachika silently danced towards them, raising a finger to his lips before pouncing.

"Hide!" Kaneki almost shrieked, startled awake from the sudden attack.

Hide laughed, holding him in a tight, unrelenting hug, refusing to release him no matter how much he flailed.

"Good morning, Kaneki-san!"

"Good morning Hide, now can you please let go?" Kaneki's words all rushed out fast, blurring together in the speed at which he spoke.

"Nope!" Hide answered, before letting go and choosing to simply sit next to him instead.

Kaneki sighed, pushing his bangs out of the way with a mutter of, "I really need something to hold these back with."

"The Aphrodite cabin probably has something," Percy pointed out, before standing and turning towards where Annabeth was walking over. "See you all later?"

The three nodded, and he left.

"Well, this isn't at all awkward," Hide whispered, noticing the stares they were receiving from demigods still sitting at their respective tables.

"Not at all," Hinami agreed, ignoring them all.

"I am going back to bed," Kaneki muttered, turning to burrow his face into the crook of Hide's neck. "You are now officially my bed as I do not want to treck all the way back to the Poseidon cabin."

"Okay!"

 

 

**A Y A T O**

 

 

Loud footsteps echoed through the alleyway, the pounding rain that now plummeted from the sky and the distant claps of thunder unable to silence them.

"Go drown yourself in gasoline, Aido," a voice muttered, Touka's eyes widening.

The four watched as Kurusu slowly turned, just in time to get hit by a tunnel of ukaku bullets aimed right at him. The attacker stepped out of the shadows, wearing the mask of a Black Rabbit.

"A-Ayato-kun?!" Touka somewhat yelled, ukaku dying down.

Ayato glared at her, eyes hardening after a moment of what had seemed to be... an apology.

"Gomen, aniki. You didn't actually think I left with you weaklings, did you?"

She shook for a moment, before slowly beginning to collapse.

 _I should've known,_ she thought, lying facedown on the pavement.  _I should've known. We're Kirishima's-we're too stubborn to simply just get up and abandon what we've been working for. Why didn't I know?_  She began to bang her fist against the ground.  _Why didn't I know? But-wait a minute. How?_

She rose once more, using Jason as a balance. Her eyes were equally as hard.

"You say you never actually left. If that is so, then who went to the camp?"

He gave a false chuckle, shooting another ten or so bullets into Aido, who had been standing and watching, amused, picking the bullets from his skin.

"Ever heard of smoke sprites? Aogiri keeps in contact with the Greek world, moreso than the Greeks themselves, it appears."

Annabeth added the term to her ever-growing list of things to research.

He turned to the blonde ghoul, who appeared to now be assessing their who he was now up against. Both Kirishima siblings and three people he didn't know.

"Ayato-kun," Touka muttered, a new coldness having seemed to take over her being, "let's kill him."

"Indeed," he replied, "let's."

 


	12. XII | And So The River Changes It's Path

**G A S H A D O K U R O**

 

Touka thrust a leg forwards in the air and spun, body tilted at an angle, foot landing a solid kick to Aido's left eye, ripping it from it's socket. He yelled out, shoving his orange koukaku blade into her side. Or, trying to. Hazel was fast in blocking the attack with her sword, backed up by Jason, who cut the appendage right from his back. Annabeth shifted around, using the shards of ukaku from Ayato's kagune as a distraction as she dug her blade in where Jason had cut, trying and failing to root out the kakuhou.

Kurusu spun, grabbing at his unattached blade and using it to ward off Ayato's burning fleet, knocking Annabeth over in the process and trying to ram it into her shoulder. She rolled out of the way just in time, and the blade hit the ground hard; splitting into multiple segments. She reached out a hand and grabbed her knife, swiftly removing the foot that could've been used against her if not quickly disposed of. She rolled out a bit further before latching onto a building's wall and using it to haul herself up, mask still covering her face perfectly as her hair got quickly soaked by the rain.

Kurusu made a move towards Hazel, knowing he could break through the human's -no, humans didn't smell like that, these people definitely were not human, or at least not fully human- whatever she was's body using his arm if necessary. He threw a punch, aiming for her stomach, only to find that arm quickly sliced off by her dagger.

_Second time today._

He grabbed her arm with his other as she attempted to jump back, leaning his head forward.

_Just one bite might heal this a bit faster._

His actions were quickly cut off, however, when the rain of ukaku that had previously just been pouring onto his back shifted just the tiniest bit, his neck becoming the new target of a narrowed, sharpened wave of literal hell.

He dodged quickly, breaking Hazel's arm in the process, and she forced herself down to the ground, crying out and clutching at her forearm as she tilted her head to avoid getting hit by the stinging 'feathers.'

He quickly shifted around her, grabbing her neck from the back in a chokehold and lifting her so she was in front of him.

"Aim for me and you aim for her!" he screeched, madness clear in his eyes.

"Bastard," Annabeth hissed, already coming up with an attack plan. She and Touka exchanged a glaring glance, cold silver eyes meeting even colder if possible purple.

The two ran forwards, each coming at him from a different side.

 _If he gets the chance to let out his kakuja.. no. He wouldn't. Not here. In an alleyway this small, that would only put him at a disadvantage,_ Touka reasoned to herself. The demigods didn't even know he was a kakuja, so if he did, chances are they were screwed. If the fight didn't end soon, they were also screwed because really they  _had_ to be attracting the attention of the CCG by now, and a glance at the window of one of the apartments only served to confirm her suspicion, someone staring back while another screamed, running for the phone.

She turned back to the task at hand, throwing her wing directly into the spot where his spine delved further into his upper back, feeling bits of bone break as tendons and muscle was cut through and shoved out of the way. Annabeth was directly behind her on the other side, celestial bronze knife meeting with her wing as the two ripped him in half. Hazel took the chance she was given, bending down while his arms went weak and loose around her neck to grab at the fallen cavalry sword and looked up, judging the distance and angle needed. She suddenly stood, bending back, and thrust it up through his underchin as far as it could reach, going straight through bone and brain and skull and completely through his head. 

Just as his kakuja mask began to form, ripping and tearing through his current both eyes visible bright yellow half-mask that cut his face perfectly in half, Ayato sent a round directly into his head, accompanying the sword that had made it's way all the way through. Jason quickly decapitated him, finishing off the dead remains just in case he could have, in any way, managed to survive. 

"Well then," Annabeth gasped in breath from the exertion, "he came out to attack people, and I bet he had the greatest time before he died."

"Annabeth no," Hazel groaned, falling to the ground and picking the ghoul's head off her sword, the brain matter visible from where Ayato had utterly obliterated his forehead.

"Annabeth yes," Athena's daughter replied jokingly, reaching down to pull snap her mask's hold-in-place thing against the side of her head.

**"YOU ARE ALL UNDER THE ARREST OF THE CCG, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE OR WE WILL NOT HESITATE TO OPEN FIRE."**

They looked up to see helicopters swarming the sky over their alley -strangely, the same one Nishiki had first met Kaneki on-, and Touka let out a long sigh.

"Ah.. shit," Ayato winced, "that's my cue to leave. See you later, shitty aniki."

He took off down the alley and back into the bright street, removing his mask and ducking into doorways several times until he could blend in as a regular pedestrian, glad that he had decided to avoid getting blood all over like he normally would.

"Uh, Touka..?"

The rabbit ghoul turned to Jason.

"What exactly are we supposed to do now?"

She stared at him for a moment, face blank beneath her mask.

"Exactly what the CCG just said not to do: run."

 

 

**S N I P,  S N I P,  S N I P  G O E S  T H E  P L A N**

 

  

"Thanks, onii-chan!" Hinami smiled, shaking her head around a bit and watching the way her hair moved, "it looks just like in the book!"

"You're welcome, Hinami-chan," he smiled back.

"Oi, you two!" the Australian photographer of the Aphrodite cabin from Ayato and Nico's 'photo shoot' called out, appearing from out of nowhere, "Chiron is ready to meet with the cabin leaders and you."

"Thank you," Kaneki thanked as Hinami stood, handing her the borrowed mirror that they  _definitely_ had not stolen from Piper earlier. "Ah, I never really got your name."

"Hm?" She froze from where she'd been walking away, "Oh! Sorry, I forgot to tell you all. I'm Ivy, nice to meet you," she held out a hand, Kaneki reluctantly standing to shake it.

"Seriously though, you two should hurry up, I think the others were already there."

 

"Eurghhh," Malcolm [Athena backup head] complained noisily, creating a headrest with his arms and leaning his head back, one leg on Kaneki's chair, "what's taking them so long?"

"I doubt you actually want them to walk in with your foot on Kaneki's chair anyway," Miranda Gardner [Demeter head] replied, casually munching on some dried strawberries Travis had given her.

"Mueh, Clarisse isn't here yet either," this time, it was Travis.

"True, true," Malcolm finished the conversation, removing his foot from the chair just as they burst in through the door.

"Sorry for being late!" Kaneki apologized with a small bow, Clarisse elbowing him in the side with a mutter of there being no need for that.

"Right, that means everyone's here," Chiron clapped his hands together once, beckoning for the three to take their seats.

Clarisse, Kaneki, and Hinami complied quickly, taking the three empty seats between Will Solace Clovis, Malcolm looking irritated across from Kaneki.

"So," Lou Ellen [Hecate head] coughed, "fire. Did anyone get to see either of the two up close?"

Percy, Clarisse, Kaneki, Hinami, and Hide raised their hands, Hide staring at Hinami for a moment before exclaiming that she had "an amazing haircut! Who cut it?"

"Onii-chan did it, it looks just like the girl from Takatsuki Sen's book!"

"Nerds," someone muttered. It was probably Clarisse.

"Back on topic," Malcolm demanded, getting more and more annoyed by the moment. Arcade scooted further away from him on his seat.

They were in a meeting room hardly ever used under the Big House, one that was filled with dust no matter where you looked, light still managing somehow though to shine in from outside. Below it, Percy could almost  _feel_ the pull from the labyrinth. Boxes were stuck along the walls from every angle, some very old and still in their wrapping.

"Right," Lou Ellen picked up from where she'd left off without missing a beat, "we know one wore checkers and the other wore gold, but was there anything particularly distinguishing about them?"

Kaneki's brow furrowed, a look of concentration shaping his face, hair suddenly much less fluffy than it'd been fifteen minutes before.

"Well, if you were to ask a ghoul," he began, "they'd probably feel the need to mention the distinct lack of any smell whatsoever. Though, we really only saw the checkered one, who seemed to like calling herself 'Checkers' for one reason or another."

"Checkers?"

The rather large group shifted uncomfortably.

"Yeah!" Hide grinned, pulling out an old, once again  _dusty_  game box from behind his chair, "like the game checkers. I think, if she were a ghoul, that would be, like, her alias."

"If she is a ghoul, then that would explain a lot," a wild Grover suddenly appeared, hoofs click-clacking down the old wooden stairs as he walked down, single light bulb illuminating his face in the musty, warm, and yet still dry air.

"Care to elaborate?" Clarisse sniffed in a stuck-up fashion. She hadn't gotten her morning coffee because  _a few certain people_ had drank it all.

Grover threw her a look before sighing and continuing, "while I was gone searching for Pan, I ran into a rather strange couple. Both were girls, one with blue hair in a bob cut, the other with short lavender hair, Scarlet Johansson style and all."

"That was strange?" Malcolm asked, clearly unimpressed.

"No, what was strange was that the two were covered in blood, the blue haired one going on and on about how good a game they'd had, something about taking down some guy while using only one king. The lavender-haired girl was laughing along with her, all scary Disney villain like, and so I went back the way they'd come. Eventually, as I was running through the streets, I came across a building with blood seeping out from under the well-sealed door. I tried for the knob, expecting it to be locked, but oh no, it sure as Tartarus was open. I almost wish I hadn't, because in it there was a dead man's corpse, sliced and shredded like fruit or vegetables or whatever on a kabob, lying on a blood-stained checkerboard. When I turned around, the blue-haired girl was right there, just staring at me and grinning like some kind of sadist."

_"Say, satyr, do you prefer to play checkers or chess?"_

"And then she vanished."

"She just vanished?" Malcolm scoffed, Leo sighing and kicking him in the knee. He winced, but otherwise remained in his pissed-off, I-don't-give-a-single-fuck mood.

"Yes."

Chiron brought his hands together, motioning for Malcolm to write everything he hadn't yet down. The Athena backup head narrowed his eyes, before beginning to quickly scribble the info down on the notebook on his clipboard.

"Now then, Kaneki," he addressed, Kaneki looking up to meet his eyes, "you said you had something to speak of when I had the chance, correct?"

"Hai," Kaneki replied, quickly returning his eyes to his shoes, before lifting his head again. "I had a weird dream a few nights or so ago that now I think may be connected to this."

Chiron nodded for him to go on.

Kaneki took a breath before continuing, "I was in some sort of ongoing garden with this random person that I  _do not know,_ emphasis on do not know, with short blue hair like how Grover," he motioned towards Grover, having picked up on the satyr's name when Percy had greeted him the previous night while the forest was on fire, "described. She held out a flower, before it changed -and the entire garden- changed into a flower called lycoris radiata, or, if you'd prefer, red spider lillies. In Japanese flower symbolization, lycoris radiata symbolize death, as well as the beginning of autumn. After this, she changed into my first, err," he coughed nervously, "date, Kamishiro Rize. Or, if you will, the ghoul who's kakuhou I now have."

There was a moment of silence, before Clarisse suddenly interrupted.

"Okay, wait, wait, wait," she laughed, "that ghoul mentioned at our last meeting at the campfire was your  _first date?!_ Dude, that is so lame!"

Kaneki blushed, and this only served to make her laugh harder.

"Oh,  _this is so rich!_ I need to share this with the entire Aphrodite cabin, oh Gods, the looks that'll be on their faces!"

Hide patted Kaneki's back in an effort of comfort, which seemed to work, on the son of Apollo's behalf. He sent a look over to Will, the two silently communicating in their literal-rays-of-sunshine ways.

"I don't trust those two," Nico muttered, getting up from his chair go sit in Thalia's empty seat.

"No, Nico waaaaaait!" Will yelled, latching onto the back of his shirt and crashing to the ground when he refused to stop moving.

"Noooo..." he whispered, faking tears as he continued to lay on the ground, arm extended towards where Nico now sat. "How could you abandon me?"

Arkade and Clarisse met eyes for a moment, before the son of Nemesis slowly let out a, "the urge to step on you is so overwhelming right now."

Little to say, Will was back in his chair very, very quickly.

Piper sighed, growing tired of watching them all. She turned to Chiron, mind set on one thing.

"We need to tell Thalia."

"Thalia?" Percy and Grover's heads turned to the side simultaneously, Grover leaning onto Percy's chair.

"Yeah. She might know something, or better yet, be able to help."

"Actually," Chiron shifted in his wheelchair, "I've already Iris Messaged her, asking for her to check up on Anteiku. We're expecting her to return with a full report on the happenings within a day or two."

"Anteiku?" Hide's head perked up at the mention of the ghoul cafe, turning to Kaneki wearily, "didn't Touka-chan threaten to kill me if I found out about you?"

"Things have changed, Hide. I doubt she's still going to kill you."

The demigod let out a relieved sigh, glad that the upcoming murder wouldn't be happening, at least, not anytime soon.

"So, is that all?" Chiron asked, taking a moment to look to each face.

"Okay. Malcolm, you're in charge of finding out as much information as possible on 'Checkers.'"

Malcolm nodded in determination.

"Kaneki, Hide, and Hinami. You're all in charge of keeping up with Anteiku and the ghoul world. Piper, your job is to keep in contact with Reyna for me and make sure everything stays elastic. Just, don't pull on the elastic."

He finally turned to Percy and Grover, his voice turning to little more than a whisper.

"You two, make sure we have as many options available for any occasion."

His voice rose again.

"Everyone else, you already know your jobs."

Clarisse smirked.

As everyone stood to leave, Chiron gestured for Leo to step back with him for a moment. He leaned in close, whispering something into the son of Hephaestus' ear. Valdez nodded, eyes widening slightly.

"Will do."

 

 

**T H E  H U N T E R S  O F  A R T E M I S**

 

 

Amon and Akira pulled up next to a few of the other CCG vans, stepping out with their briefcases. They had been informed by someone who lived around here of a ghoul fight going on between who was guessed to be Rabbit, Black Rabbit, Yellow Half-Face, and three unknown ghouls carrying... weapons. No use of kagune reported.

Suzuya waltzed over excitedly, showing them his iPhone on which for some reason, he was currently facetiming Takizawa.

"Seidou-san wishes good luck~" he sung, before putting it back on sleep mode and pocketing it with a wink.

Shinohara let out an exasperated sigh, tapping at his earpiece for a moment to signal that he was in a conversation.

"Yeah, got it."

He turned to them.

"Black Rabbit's fled, but the other five are still there, and the sixth, the guy they were fighting, appears to be dead. They're ready for us to move in."

Akira nodded, clutching tighter at her briefcase. The left wall suddenly erupted, the force enough to throw the four against the other.

"What the..?" Amon began, only to freeze up at the sight of a group of female ghouls glaring ice at them, appearing to be Western in ethnicity.

"Thalia," the one in the front called to the other in the front in what sounded like English, though the second was a bit behind her, "if you would care to do the honours."

The one named Thalia bowed her head for a moment before looking up directly into Amon's eyes, a dopey smirk on the bottom half of her face as her eyes shined electric blue.

"My pleasure, Artemis," the syllables of the name were drawn out in a song, much like how Suzuya sung from time to time. The rest of the group and 'Artemis' split, some raising their ukaku to aim at the helicopters above, others running further into the alley.

Thalia stepped slowly forward until she was in front of the investigators, who found that their briefcases had seemed to mysteriously disappeared, as well as Juuzou, to which Thalia seemed to pay no mind.

"Lady Artemis wishes you all goodnight," she murmured, still with that smile as she reared back slightly, full face visible, "and don't let the bedbugs bite."

 

"Hunters..?" Annabeth questioned, as shining gold arrows hit the helicopter, causing it to crash onto the roof of one building, though with the way it fell, she doubted anyone was dead.

Her theory was verified when a group of teenage girls ran out of the shadows, wielding bows with sheaths of arrows on their backs with grins on their faces.

"Yo, Annabeth!" one greeted, coming forwards to hug her. She returned the hug with a grin.

"Lise, nice to finally see you all again."

"Who the hell are they?!" Touka yell-questioned, staring at them as though she'd like to see their dead bodies hung on her bedroom wall if they made one wrong move.

Hazel smiled up at her.

"The Hunters of Artemis, don't worry, they mean no harm unless Artemis does, which I really highly doubt."

"No harm," Lise confirmed.

"Tch, can they get us out of here?" Touka asked, irritated at the sudden arrival of yet more people.

"Why else would we be helping?" one of them questioned. She looked a bit like Lise, and Touka silently wondered if they might be related. The only difference between the two was a slight alteration in facial features and hair color, although Lise's was just flat out short while the one who'd just spoken's was in a braid pinned to the top of her head.

"I don't know," she replied, just glad that Kurusu was finally dead and out of she and her brother's lives for good.

 Lise paused as another helicopter went down overhead, green eyes burning the alley behind them as she took a look to see if the coast was clear.

"Artemis and the others are probably among the rooftops already, and will catch up later. Thalia probably took care of the investigators quickly, so we should probably leave before the CCG sends reinforcements," she bent down, extending a hand towards Hazel, who used it to lift herself up gratefully, sheathing her sword and jumping forwards slightly as Lise began to move, commanding the others to get ready to sneak.

"She knows the way back to where you've all been staying, right?" Lise inquired, tilting her head back and meeting her gaze with Annabeth's, gesturing to Touka with the hand holding her bow.

Annabeth nodded.

She let her head fall back into it's natural position, nodding to herself as she turned to Touka.

"You lead the way, then."

 

Jason blinked from where he'd been staring off into space at the darkness of the alleyway in the other direction. He  _swore_ he could feel two pairs of eyes on them. Who's, though, he was uncertain.

 

"Hey, Tatara-san, Noro-san?" Eto whispered, looking up at the  _extremely way too tall how did he even get that tall_ ghoul.

He looked down at her while Noro remained still and silent.

"Find out what you can about the 'Hunters of Artemis' for me, will you?"

He looked back up to watch the retreating figures, wanting desperately to behead the idiot who kept looking back.

_If he senses something, he senses something. I hate idiots like that._

"Of course," he replied, feeling the hollow eyes of the bandage mask staring up at him creepily.

"Thank you, Tatara-san," she giggled, turning and running back through the alley.

 

"Hmm, Aogiri seems interesting, doesn't it, Mey-lee-chan?" a voice whispered, watching as the purple-caped ghoul in the mummy wrapping skipped away from the other two. She sucked on the bloody stump that was the ghoul she'd just killed's finger, moving her tongue around under the skin and ripping away nerve endings and muscle with her bottom layer of teeth while digging in with the top to hold it in place. She pulled out the fingernail delicately with her own two fingers, letting out a slight moan at the flavour.

"'Mummy' is so proud. Remember that time I sung the _Attack on Titan_ theme song while we were being chased? I always knew you loved that show."

She swallowed the rest of the finger, bending down from where she was sitting to break off another. The dead eyes of her 'daughter' stared back up at her, mouth open wide in a silent scream. Her own black cape fell slightly, revealing her electric white hair and _Madoka Magica Charlotte_ _Witch_ mask.

"It's too bad I had to kill you for as simple a thing as to keep you from lifting up and inevitably dropping a pipe, but," she let out a tiny laugh, "mommy knows best."

 

 

**A R T E M I S  I N  A N T E I K U**

 

 

"So she's a goddess," Touka motioned to Artemis, "and they're all her Hunters?"

Annabeth winced at the was it sounded as though Touka was implying that they hunted Artemis, but nodded nonetheless. They were all sitting at the bar sipping on coffees that Nishiki and Touka had brewed, though it  _had_ been mostly Nishiki while they were gone.

"Okay, and their goal was to find out how things were going over here, right?"

Thalia nodded.

"Well, if you really want, you can all just kind of hang out here for a day, I suppose. Although-"

The bell suddenly ringed, a tired-looking Banjou followed by Ichimi, Jiro, and Sante.

"Banjou-san?" Touka questioned, immediately standing up from her stool at the bar to greet him. He shot her a warm smile, accepting the mug of coffee offered by Jason.

It was then that Tsukiyama stepped in, Touka immediately tensing up at the sight of the Gourmet.

"What do you want, Shitty-yama?"

"Just following Banjoi-san, Touka-chan. No need to get act so.. uncouth."

The last word was spoken in English, him unknowing of the fact that she could, at the moment, understand any word he could come up with. She glared.

"My name's Banjou, not Banjoi," Banjou corrected, Tsukiyama ignoring him completely, instead walking up in front of Artemis.

"Hello there~" he murmured, taking a seat next to her. Artemis stiffened, giving a panicked glance towards Thalia, who quickly moved onto his other side so he was now surrounded completely by the Hunters.

Touka sighed. This was going great!

"So, what were you wanting, Banjou-san?" she asked, choosing to ignore Tsukiyama if he were going to do the same to her.

"Kaneki-kun has been sending us out on all these tasks to find out more on Kanou ever since going to that camp, and having us send the information back to him. We're here because we were wondering what exactly he's been asking of you," Tsukiyama answered, not even giving Banjou a chance to reply.

Touka's heartbeat sped up.

"Other than housing these guys," she gestured to nearly everyone in the room, "nothing."

"Hmm, so I'm correct then. What exactly has Yoshimura been sending to him as food?"

Touka frowned.

"Well, human meat, I'd assume."

"Are you certain," Tsukiyama asked, a sly smile working it's way onto his face, "that there wasn't anything... ghoul?"

"Of course I am!" Touka slammed her fist down onto the bar, "I'm the one who packs the meat! He hasn't eaten ghoul since Leo and Calypso got him out of Jason's torture chamber!"

The Hunters glanced at Jason.

"Not that Jason!"

They looked away, feeling slightly relieved.

"Calm down, Touka-chan, I was just asking. After all, you know how Kaneki-kun was about eating human-"

"Yes, I know, I WAS THERE!" she grabbed a coffee cup, chucking it at the obnoxiously-clothed ghoul's face.

_"Add another price x10000 yen," her mental Manager smiled._

"What is the point of this?" she asked, trying to keep from outright launching herself at Tsukiyama and ripping him apart limb by limb.

"If I can interrupt," Banjou interrupted, "we're here to ask how you, yourselves, have been faring."

"So are they," Touka gestured to the hunters.

Banjou nodded, giving them a small wave.

"They'll probably be staying here tomorrow, working with us all. Now, anything truly important?"

"Well," Banjou coughed, "it would seem that the CCG has labelled Nagachika Hideyoshi as a traitor and is now on the lookout. They've also connected the dots and suspect Kaneki of being a ghoul, from what we can tell, and, uh, yeah. The Cotton Candy ghoul has been showing up everywhere recently, and we just wanted you to be on the lookout for someone who looks, well, like this."

He held out a picture which was grabbed by one of the hunters, who stared at it for a moment, before allowing it to slide along the counter.

"In the end, I think it would be best if Kaneki-kun were told that this 'Cotton Candy' ghoul may have some form of connection with Akihiro Kanou."


	13. XIII | Happenings in Tokyo

**A O G I R I**

**(CCG information)**

 

_Name(s): Hideyoshi Nagachika_

 

 _In the raid on Aogiri,_ the _part-timer working with Amon Koutarou and Mado Akira went missing, as soon as the beginning of the raid. Koutarou and Mado split up to search for him, only to turn up with nothing._

 

_Juuzou Suzuya reported having seen and fought him while following two people he believed to have been human carrying what appeared to be an unconscious ghoul. According to him, 'Hide-san' jumped in his way and defended the group, allowing them to escape._

 

_We have no further information regarding Hideyoshi Nagachika during the raid on Aogiri; however, in a conversation with Marude Itsuki, prior to working with Mado and Koutarou, he mentioned the missing person Kaneki Ken as his best friend, which was apparently part of the reason he decided to join CCG._

_To add to this, Kaneki Ken is known to have been working in a coffeeshop after having steel beams from a construction collapse on he and an unknown woman, who's organs were then transplanted into him by the previous CCG CFG doctor, Akihiro Kanou, who shortly after also went missing, along with the dead girl's body._

 

 

**K A N E K I ' S  S W O R D &  S H I E L D  B E C A M E  A S S O C I A T E D  W I T H  T H E  S I X T H  W A R D +**

**(Non-CCG information)**

 

_The leader of the sixth ward, Matasaka Kamishiro, did not return to his ward after Aogiri Tree's raid on Cochlea._

_Orca was found to have joined Aogiri._

 

 

**G O U R M E T  M A S S A C R E**

**(CCG information)**

 

_A mass murder of gourmets has occurred._

_Gourmet thought to have attended/helped._

_Unknown rinkaku ghoul present._

 

**K A N O U ' S  L A B**

**(CCG information)**

 

_In the raid on Kanou's lab, Mado Akira and Amon Koutarou ran into the S-rated ghoul Gourmet, who fought against them alongside S-rated Naki, an escapee from Aogiri's own raid on Kokuria [Ghoul Detention Center/Cochlea]._

_Juuzou Suzuya has also run into the twins Yasuhisa, who have now somehow become half-ghouls._

_CCG has been attempting to fit this information in with the case of Kaneki Ken._

_Kanou had already escaped._

_Many living, most likely failure test subjects attacked investigator Shinohara Yukinori and two others, causing him to deploy his quinque armor Arata._

_Evidence of someone being broken out of that room was left over._

 

**(Non-CCG)**

 

_Kanou escaped with Aogiri after a ghoul under the alias of of Raven rekidnapped their test subject-Kamishiro Rize._

 

 

**T H E  I N V E S T I G A T O R  I N  T H E  C O F F E E S H O P**

 

 

 "Hisashi Ogura is not a ghoul expert, he's just a free-lance ghoul who blabs about the information he scraped up together himself," Shinohara sighed in annoyance.

"A free-lance ghoul, you say?"

"Yes... it's because of occult men like him exist that the lay people's perception of ghouls go soft. Judging from the appetite of the binge eater, I'd say they are probably a young ghoul in their teens or twenties, and a girl."

"Why a girl?" Suzuya asked, seemingly genuinely curious.

"The majority of the victims were slim, well-dressed men. She was probably 'chowing down' the hot ones."

"It could be a a drag queen, you know," Suzuya smiled.

"Ohhhh, I didn't think of that, Juuzou-kun. I personally wanted to connect the 'binge eater' to the girl who died in the 'steel-frame' accident. But, before long, it's going to be my 20th year, and I've never seen a drag queen ghoul."

 

"--Manager, so those people, they're ghoul investigators?" Roma whispered, referring to the old man and the guy with the mismatched, honestly quite chaotic attire and the white hair.

"Correct," the Manager smiled.

The bell rang as Touka stepped in with an utterance of "I'm back."

"Touka-chan," the Manager greeted.

"On the way back from school I stopped by, but..," she shot a glance at the investigators, "the timing just wasn't right."

Her eyes moved to Roma.

"Roma, you're looking a little pale," she commented, "go rest in the back."

"Touka-chan," Roma thanked her, moving to go through the 'Staff Only' doors.

"Sorry about that, Touka-chan," the Manager apologized.

"Not at all," she brushed his apology off, "it would be scarier for Roma if she were out here," her voice dropped, "you don't know what they'll do, after all."

The manager raised his head, motioning for her to go see what they wanted to order.

"That's true."

 

"Excuse me, I'd like another iced coffee," the older investigator spoke.

"-and I'd like another cocoa," the other added on, "oh, and this mixed sandwich."

Just as she was about to turn to leave, the older brought back her attention.

"Waitress, mind if I asked you something?" he questioned, much quieter now than before. 

She nodded.

"Was there a boy who worked part time here before, one going by the name of Kaneki-kun?"

"Yes," she anwered. "He was the university student who worked here for a short time."

"Yeah, so that guy," Shinohara watched all of her reactions, timing a tracking everything, "he doesn't come here anymore?"

"Yes, not anymore..."

_Why is an investigator asking about him..?_

"Is something the matter?" she asked, allowing worry to creep over her features.

"Oh, no," he replied, holding up his badge thingy, "I'm just looking some things up."

"... 'Ghoul Investigator'?"

He continued on with his interrogation.

"When did Kaneki-kun work here?"

"I think around October."

"Around when did he disappear?"

"Around December last year he disappeared all of a sudden, and I couldn't get in contact with him."

Shinohara thought hard.

_Right after getting his surgery he worked here... and he stopped coming to his part time job around the time he stopped going to school._

"Hm?" Juuzou asked, staring up at Touka. "Is something wrong?"

"... Huh?"

She felt like his eyes were staring into her soul.

"You threw something up."

She stared back at him, wondering just how he figured that out, before laughing slightly.

"Nah, I'm fine now, I just ate something last night back when my friend Roma-chan and I went to a Karaoke party. There was this dare, and I took it, and this morning it made it's reappearance."

Shinohara smiled, though it quickly dropped when a flash of recognition hit his eyes.

"Hey, you- have we met before?" he asked her, as she just sort of awkwardly stood there.

"... No? Unless it was for a school thing, I don't think so?"

_[Enter Arata scene]_

His eyes remained glued to her face.

 _Oh shit,_ she panicked,  _I look too much like otou-san._

"Here's your coffee, cocoa, and mixed sandwich," the Manager smiled, walking over holding a tray of said items. "Kaneki-kun was... a very good kid. He was kind-hearted and very adept with his hands," he stood in front of Touka, "did you contact the university?"

"Yes," Shinohara responded.

"Well, then I don't know if this will help with your search," the Manager smiled, "but apparently, he was the recipient of a heart transplant. It seems he was involved in some kind of accident... even in the store he was taking depressants. He had been under the weather and didn't seem to have eaten properly."

Suzuya munched down on the sandwhich as he listened.

"... Was there anything else out of the ordinary?" Shinohara asked.

"Now that I think about it," the Manager brought a hand up to his chin and looked up a bit, as though thinking, "he mentioned wanting to go somewhere far away."

He smiled fondly.

"I mean, he is at that age after all."

"... Is that so?" Shinohara grinned, though not wolf-like in the way one would expect from Nishiki or Tsukiyama. "The coffee was delicious."

"Thanks for the meal," Suzuya thanked, turning to Touka.

"I'll be back," Shinohara added on, though it wasn't near as bright and friendly in feeling as Suzuya's congratulations.

 

 

**T H E  T H A L I A &  T O U K A  C H R O N I C L E S**

 

 

"Everything's going perfect," Thalia mocked, gripping her controller tighter as Touka sped ahead, clearly referencing to their conversation in Anteiku the previous night.

"Oh, shut up," Touka retorted, letting out a agitated sound when Thalia slipped a banana in front of her. "Did you just throw a banana in my way?!"

"Yes," Thalia grinned, taking the lead.

"Oh, come on!"

Jason walked past, pausing for a moment to watch the two of them.

"Hey, are you two playing Mario Party 10?"

"Yes, now shhhh," Thalia shushed him, trying desperately to keep ahead of the purple-headed ghoul.

The end was drawing nearer.

"Oh hell no you don't," Touka muttered, suddenly boosting ahead.

 The game was put on pause, Thalia staring deep into Touka's eyes.

"Everything's going perfect," she repeated, the words soft and slow.

Touka sighed, gulping slightly and filled with melancholy.

"Everything isn't going perfect, those investigators were here for a reason and it's probably us," she reached out a hand to Thalia, eyes brimming with words unspoken, "so help us, will you? When everything burns up in flames?"

 

 

**R E T U R N**

 

 

"Hey, that's Thalia!"

Shouts were heard throughout the camp as Artemis and her Hunters made their way up to the Big House; where the cabin leaders, ghouls, Hide, and Chiron already sat waiting and watching.

"Chiron," Artemis bowed her head respectfully, eyes gleaming.

"Lady Artemis," he did the same.

The two shared a moment of silence, communicating with their eyes alone. Artemis clenched her fist tightly, Thalia and Lise stiffening behind her.

"Something's about to happen over at Anteiku," she murmured, "something big."

 

Leo closed his eyes, and when he reopened them, they were standing in front of a ship.


	14. XIV | Incompetence

**C A L M  B E F O R E  T H E  S T O R M**

 

"Hey, Will," Nico muttered softly, brushing his head against his boyfriend's chest.

"Oh, you're still awake?"

"Idiot..." he allowed a moment to pass before continuing.

"You do realize that next time I shadow travel, I'll be gone, right?" he left the 'forever' off at the end, knowing Will would catch the implication without it. Will pulled him closer, wrapping his arms over the pale, black-haired demigod's torso, carding his fingers through the strands of his hair soothingly.

"Shhh. You'll be able to manage it."

Nico closed his eyes, willing the message to be true. But he clearly recalled his father and Athena's words, carefully crafted as to not cause a panic.

"Soon enough you'll probably have to return to the darkness. And when that happens-"

"You can't use 'and' to start a sentence."

"Shh, let me continue. When that happens, I will get you back out."

He allowed a tear to slip down his cheek, leaning into Will's embrace.

"Yeah. You **Will**. I won't let you not." He allowed a small smile to spread and warm his cheeks, comforted by the solace offered by Will, but knowing deep down that this was the last night either would share together.

 

 

**T H E  A N T E I K U  R A I D**

 

 

"You don't have to help, you know," Irimi reminded the trio, watching as Annabeth sipped down her coffee.

"No, no," Annabeth brushed her off, "it's what we do. Besides, we fought the literal Earth a few years ago, it'll be fine."

The Manager watched them all for a moment, before bowing his head in acceptance.

"I, Anteiku, and the rest of the ghouls that will be out tonight thank you."

"Let's just hope we can make it through the night before thanking anyone," Touka muttered irritably, walking in with half-dried hair and a towel on her head.

"Touka-chan," the Manager smiled over at her, "finally come to join us?"

"Tch."

 

 

**T O  F E E L  A L I V E**

 

 

The Devil Ape and the Black Dog stepped out into the dim lighting of the street, masks on with uncharacteristically intimidating postures. The investigators in front of them stiffened, fingers collectively tightening on the draws as they aimed towards the two.

"Welcome," they chorused, making sure they were directly in front of the door, Anteiku sign hanging above them.

The investigators immediately fired, causing them to leap into the air to avoid the quinque steel-coated bullets. It wouldn't do for them to be put down so early in.

Koma spun in the air, hitting the ground and throwing himself over again and again, taking out the investigators left and right. Irimi ran around them quickly, the bullets hitting walls and windows and whatever else was directly behind her. She dashed through the small crowd, slashing through the pathetically weak armor instantly.

"Don't lose your cool! There are only two of them!" someone yelled out.

"Just two, he says," Irimi murmured, throwing an amused glance over to the Devil Ape.

"Pretty dull-witted, huh?" he silently laughed back, thinking about just how many of them there  _really_ were.

The two took to the air once more, Koma gesturing with his right hand for the others to come out. The remaining investigators' eyes widened as numerous individuals stood up from where they'd been crouching on the rooftops, allowing themselves to block the view as Artemis and her Hunters made their way out.

"You mean.. the Owl isn't our only enemy?" the same investigator asked, clutching his gun ahead of him as a bead of sweat dripped down his face.

"That is..." another began, informing him of their current situation, "... the Devil Ape, and the Black Dog, too."

"But they're... supposed to be enemies... so why are they...?" a third questioned, beginning to shake.

Koma turned to those standing behind him, beginning to lose his patience.

"Ne, you haven't gone soft on me, have you?" he asked.

"No!"

"Go and die for me, all of you," Irimi ordered.

"Hai!" they nodded.

"Go wild."

The ghouls began to jump from the roof, taking down the investigators faster than even Zeus would've been able to keep track of.

 

 

**A N N A B E T H ,  J A S O N , &  P I P E R**

 

 

Jason removed his glasses, leaning over the sink and running a wet towel over his face. His fist closed around the delicate frame, listening to it crunch as they broke, but not really managing to care. He could hear the fight going on outside, but it all somehow seemed so... surreal.

"Jason?" a voice called back to him, Hazel appearing in the doorway, holding her mask with one hand while leaning against the door frame with the other.

"Yeah?" he asked, realizing with a sickening drop to his stomach just how empty he sounded.

She walked over, wrapping an arm around his shoulder.

"We'll get through this," she reassured, "we'll all make it out. The CCG can't be even nearly as hard to fight as Gaia, after all."

He smiled weakly at that, turning to finally look at her as she pushed her mask up over her face.

If the mask was meant to be beautiful and yet intimidating, then Uta had definitely not failed. It was captivating; the way the gems that formed the skull shone even in the weakest light. The gaping holes of the eyes almost seemed  _too_ real, as though if he didn't know it was actually just a layer of thin fabric he would think they actually were the dark gates into nothingness in his worst nightmares.

"Hurry it up, they can't hold the CCG back forever!" Annabeth yelled, snapping the two out of their daze.

 Hazel sighed, Jason shrugging and bringing his mask down over his head. As they stepped back out, Annabeth was already waiting with a cup carry-out coffee in hand, glaring at the two of them. She was really quite intimidating for an Olive Tree.

"Yes," Hazel sighed, elbowing Jason in the ribs before grabbing two cups of coffee for them.

"Then let's get a move on."

 

 

**A R G O  I I**

 

 

It was a well-known fact by now of who was in which demisquad. Naturally, once the demigods from Anteiku met up, the squads would be officially formed. It was just a matter of waiting.

Squad A consisted of: Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Grover Underwood.

Squad B consisted of: Jason Grace, Reyna Ramirez Arrellano, and Nico di Angelo.

Squad C consisted of: Piper McLean, Hazel Levesque, and Frank Zhang.

Squad D consisted of: Leo Valdez and Calypso.

Squad E consisted of: Thalia and half of the Hunters.

Squad F consisted of: Lise and half of the Hunters.

Squad G consisted of: Kaneki Ken, Touka Kirishima, and Nagachika Hideyoshi.

Squad H consisted of: Kaya Irimi and Enji Koma.

 _All were doomed to die._  

The ship gave a lurch as it landed, or rather, floated just above a building's roof, a thick cord-and-metal ladder being thrown down for the six to climb up on. The air was cold and clouds covered the night sky.

Snowflakes had just begun to fall from the sky as the last person made it onboard.

"Percy," Annabeth whispered, running over to envelope the son of the Sea God in a hug. He wrapped his arms around her in response, leaning down to pull her lips into a kiss.

"If you two are done," Reyna interrupted, not sounding a bit as harsh as she had intended.

The two broke off, nodding, already in their group, with Grover leaning against a barrel behind Percy.

Everyone broke off into their groups and departed, the tension too high to allow for any sort of small talk.

 

 

**N O N - K I L L I N G**

 

 

Washuu's eyes widened as the dust began to stir further on ahead, a single being in a long bluish-grey cloak standing in the middle.

_And there he is._

The man turned his face towards them, eyes seeming to glow in red, face weathered with age.

The troops quickly raised their guns, preparing to release a tirade of bullets onto the Owl.

"The act of taking from others is tantamount to evil," the old man spoke, voice managing somehow to carry over the area. "From the moment we are born, we continually take something from others. Life is a succession of committing sin," his mask began to form, kagune slithering out from his shoulder blades as the kakuja freed itself. "Life itself is evil. I am conscious that I am evil, and so are all of you."

The armor was complete, and he finally turned to fully face them.

"Now, come and kill me. So I can do the same to you."

 

 

  **A S  O U R  H E A R T S  C O M E  A L I V E**

 

 

Hinami slept soundly as a door was closed behind her; Touka, Kaneki, and Hide making their way over to the door. Touka twisted the knob to open the door, only to come face-to-face with Yomo.

"Where are you going?"

The three remained silent for a moment, before answering "Anteiku."

"It isn't time for your turn yet."

"It isn't? We're just... going to let them die?"

She clutched her hands into fists, beginning to shake.

"We always said we'd help each other out in Anteiku! What will become of the Manager? What will become of Koma-san, and Irimi-san?!"

His eyes were blank, yet emotional all in the same.

"They... were always looking to find common ground somewhere. They had taken many lives and committed many sins, but by running into Yoshimura-san, they.. came to realize the meaning of all that they had done. Nonetheless, no matter how much of a change of heart they had, their sins remained. And so, they required punishment."

"Punishment?" she echoed.

"This fight is also their punishment. Both for them, and those with them."

"Then, what about me? I've killed, too."

Her expression became livid, neither Kaneki nor Hide doing anything to hold her back.

"I've killed lots of people, both because I had to eat, and simply because I was pissed off!" Her voice dropped to just above a whisper, tears kept locked away tightly in her eyes. "I also... I also need to be punished, don't I?"

Her uncle remained silent.

She glared, before stepping past, pulling Hide and Kaneki along with her. They then took off running, footsteps pattering down the street.

 

 

**H E  W H O  C O V E R S**

 

 

The One-Eyed Owl walked towards them slowly, single glowing red eye filled with hatred and remorse.

"Ch-Charge--!" The investigator who had given the order was swiftly killed, a single arm knocking off his head, before huge ukaku shards larger even than the average sword speared through the rest.

Blood and guts fell to the ground, squishing sickeningly as he stepped over them.

He stared directly at Washuu, who let out a small noise of acknowledgement.

More gunfire. More ukaku shards.

One investigator, who'd been lucky enough to only get speared in the leg twice, shivered in fear, breaking out into a cold sweat.

"This is what SSS-rated means?"

The Owl loomed above him.

"How are we... supposed to..."

Someone flew past in front, slashing off the arm that was meant to remove his head.

"Its a shame," Shinohara murmured. "I wish you could have served Iwa.. some of your delicious coffee, too."

The investigator that'd been beside Shinohara was thrown to the side.

"Iwa!" he yelled out, moving to block the Owl's next attack, which surely would've cut through him if not for Arata and his own fast movement.

It lashed out again and again, forcing him back further and further. It raised an arm, ready to bring it down over his head, when a golden  _thing_ crashed into it's back. The thing jiggled around at the top for a moment, before the arm was blown clean off, blood splattering everywhere.

"Hoji!"

"Shinohara-san!"

Shinohara's grip on his weapon increased as the arm was quickly regenerated.

"His firepower may be a five, but his regeneration must be an eight. He is without a doubt CCG's greatest foe."

 

 

**G O U R M E T**

 

 

Heavy, rasping breaths could be heard in front of them. A man with purple hair that fell over his eyes in a disarrayed manner was standing in their path, effectively blocking them.

"I won't let you go."

Their eyes collectively widened.

"Tsukiyama-san?" Kaneki asked, as the man began to hyperventilate.

They had stopped running.

"Can't you see how many of them there are?"

A breath.

"What would I do if anything ever happened to you, Kaneki-kun?"

Hide latched onto Kaneki's arm.

"I'm well aware of the risk."

"In that case...," he clenched his right hand into a fist, "in that case..."

His eyes turned red and black, tears falling freely down his cheeks.

_"In that case... you can die... right here!"_

_I can't let him, he'll be killed. Annihilated. Ican'tIcan'tIcan't-_

His koukaku formed around his arm, and he sprung into the air, turning and curving and aiming the blade towards Kaneki's head. Touka and Hide leapt out of the way, Touka forcing Hide to the ground and covering them both with her single wing.

Kaneki dodged again and again as Tsukiyama began his attack.

_"What are you, blind?! Against a force that great, I wouldn't make a dent, even with my Tsukiyama family powers!"_

_He could see a spear, no, some sort of quinque. It was going through Kaneki's precious face, gouging out his eyes._

He managed to make a cut on Kaneki's cheek.

_"What would you have me do, Kaneki-kun?! I'm not going to let anyone get in the way of me eating you! Not even you! I won't allow it!"_

_There was nothing. There was nothing but a field of flowers, Kaneki with his black hair and Kaneki with his white hair. They were slowly being torn away, like shreds of paper in the breeze._

Kaneki swiftly jumped out of the way, watching as the Gourmet charged him.

**_"Kaneki-kuuuuun!"_ **

The light of something exploding became his background, forcing Kaneki to shut his eyes.

Tsukiyama fell to the ground, tears streaming down his face.

_They'llalldiethey'llalldieKaneki-kunwilldieKaneki-kunwilldienothingwillremainIcan'tIcan'tIcan'tI-_

_"Have a heart, Kaneki-kun... would you please not go?"_

Touka relaxed her kagune, helping Hide to stand up as they walked over to stand just behind Kaneki.

 _Hecan'tandIcan'tstophim. Whycan'tIstophim?_ He'sgoingtodieandit'llbemyfaultIwishInevertriedtoeathimnonononononononoKaneki-kundoesn'tdeservethis **NO-**

"I'm sorry, Tsukiyama-san," Kaneki stepped over, crouching down next to him, "thank you for coming and trying to stop me."

_Kaneki-kun please..._

"But...," he pulled his mask over his face, gesturing for Touka and Hide to do the same. 

"I'm tired," a pause, "I can't stand not being able to do anything anymore."

**_KANEKI-KUN!_ **

 

 

**P H Y R I A &  N A D E T T E**

 

 

Phyria and Nadette ran, feet splashing in puddles where the snow had already begun to melt. They dodged around where fights were taking place, moving around an entire block to avoid running into where the Cotton Candy ghoul had engaged against a squad of First Class and Associate Special Class investigators. At one point, Nadette had even thought she'd recognized someone from the camp.

They sped up, catching sight of someone with a purple cape and another with a red half-mask standing alone above a building.

Nadette wheezed, sucking air into her lungs. They hadn't stopped running since they had begun when the warning first went out.

"We just have to make it to V14," Phyria promised, reaching out with her hand.

Nadette nodded, shooting her a weak smile, interlocking her fingers with the game-obsessed nerd's in one last promise.

 

 

**T H E M**

 

 

"This is the moment I've been longing for," Hachikawa grinned.

"Investigator Hachikawa..."

"What?"

"The lives of civilians should be given first priority. I have serious doubts about your actions earlier."

"You're one thickheaded bastard," he muttered, turning away. "Taking down the Black Dog is worth a hundred more than the life of an old hag with one foot in the grave already. Ten years. Ten years I've waited. Both my teacher and my fellow investigators were killed by her."

He grasped his color, pulling it down to reveal his chewed-away mouth, and tilting his head back to be seen.

"Do you have anything else to say, Special Investigator Hirako?"

He fired up his quinque.

"I'll make a fine quinque out of you," he muttered, pointing it at Irimi's chest.

She opened her eyes. "I'll be waiting for you in Hell."

"There is no afterlife for ghouls." 

Calypso ran forwards from her hiding spot, using her definitely-not-stolen whip-like quinque to throw him against the side of a building, effectively knocking him unconscious. Leo unsheathed threw his sphere in the air after pressing a few tiles, allowing it to distract the investigators while he unsheathed both of his new double-edged blades.

The two stood in front of Irimi, Kaneki appearing and moving her out of the way in the background.

"Is there... one for humans?" the caramel-haired demigoddess inquired; holding the sharp end of her half-quinque steel, half-celestial bronze blade towards them.

The sphere began to glow, spinning around as it moved through the air to hover between the three investigators. It unleashed several beams, managing to disintegrate wherever they hit. Leo and Calypso ran in between the three right at that moment, dodging the sphere's attacks and throwing the three right in the way, Calypso punching one of them in the gut when they refused to be hit. She stood up slowly, allowing her head to fall back to view the fourth standing behind them.

  

 

**T H E  H U N T E R S  O F  A R T E M I S**

 

 

"Don't let that group near us!" Mado commanded, standing behind a row of trained personnel.

They shot out blindly, hardly managing to make a dent in the constant stream of ukaku half-moon masks making their way forwards from both sides of the street.

Lise and Thalia grinned at one another, crossing between where the investigators weren't standing. They'd joined together after splitting to survey the area, taking their groups in the end and making their way back to this point.

"Misato!"

Their grins faded as the bodies began to pile up, 'Misato' pumping one girl -Adri- so full of quinque-ukaku shards they all collectively burst through her back.

Takizawa shouted out in adrenaline, working his way forwards and aiming for Lise, who forced him backwards against the building with her bow.

"Takizawa!" Akira yelled angrily, "it's too early for you to be so worn out!"

"Shut up!" he yelled back, "I'm still just warning up!"

He forced Lise back, causing her to hit the ground. She shoved an arrow forwards, intending to land it in his eye. Misato began shooting, and she her eyes widened, Artemis appearing to pull her out of the way just in time.

"Lady Artemis!" she gasped. Artemis merely grimaced, vanishing into the background once more.

"I won't let myself be in the way of the investigators," Takizawa huffed.

  

 

**N O N - K I L L I N G**

 

 

"Ui!"

Guns were fired, quinques brought down onto the Owl as it continued to fend off each of their attacks.

Another of the odd golden thingies was implanted, taking off another fast-healing arm.

_Well?_

When the smoke cleared, it was staring directly at one of them.

"Incoming!" Shinohara warned, hoping it had been on time.

The Owl spun around and around, firing it's own as an insufficient attack. Nonetheless, it had managed to affect Shinohara's koukaku quinque, which he had been using to cover his head.

_Even with Ui here, this is **it?**_

"Maru, where's Juuzou?" he spoke into his speakers.

"I've sent him your way," was his reply.

The white-haired investigator suddenly appeared as if from nowhere at all, grinning as he flipped himself over as he flew through the air, clashing with the Owl over and over again, managing to hit twice, at least, from what Shinohara had been able to see.

"Good evening," he greeted.

The Owl thrust forwards with his arms, intending to slice Juuzou in half. The whitette leapt overtop and out of harms way, throwing Jason around to slice through it's back. He bent his elbow as the Manager turned, blocking his next attack before it'd even begun. He backwards-cartwheeled, landing on his feet quickly and turning to face his opponent.

"Juuzou!" Shinohara yelled, "don't dart around!"

Suzuya took no heed to his words, running forwards again and laughing like it were a day in paradise. He and the Owl clashed, one being somewhere one second, and being somewhere completely different in the next.

_Juuzou isn't skilled at coordinated attacks. The way he's going, he can't beat the Owl. He has to match his rhythm--_

_\--"There's no need for that."_

_"Mado?" Shinohara questioned, watching as the old man hobbled into view._

_"You think too much with your head. You should surrender to your senses a little more. Not every enemy can be defeated with by-the-numbers moves._

_Neither friend nor foe is obliged to move predictably, right? In which case, at least get to know your friends well."_

_He turned towards him._

_"Their thought patterns, their behavior patterns--everything."_

_He was facing the battle again._

_"Then you can let them move about freely. When you and I were partners, that's what I did, remember?"_

"Man, he  _could_ pick his words better, couldn't he?"

Juuzou and the Owl appeared to be stuck in checkmate, both of them. Juuzou was thrown out, landing at Shinohara's feet. He leaned down, checking to make sure the younger investigator was alright.

"Juuzou!"

He was panting, face beaded with sweat from all the exertion. Even he, it seemed, had limits.

He turned to meet his superior's gaze.

"Charge in there!"

Juuzou did as told, energy renewed by the simple command. The two beat the Owl around between them, Juuzou going in for attack and Shinohara serving as defense. The others surrounded.

"Where's Hirako? What's Mogan doing?"

"They took on the Eyepatched ghoul and two others. One had a clockwork mask, and the other's was _Death Gun's_ from _Gun Gale Online_."

"Are they alright?"

"Yes. Their quinques were destroyed and Mogan's squad has quite a few wounds, is all."

The Manager leapt upwards, using the buildings to throw itself higher and higher.

"Don't let him escape!"

 

_"Do you think even I can do it?" Kaneki asked, wiping the tears from his eyes as Hide laid resting on the bed behind him._

_"I must decide what to do after I see things for myself," now he was wearing an eyepatch, a look of determination overriding his features._

 

When he reached the top, he stopped, looking out over the city. 

"Kaneki-kun..."

 

He was shot down, the force from the impact against the ground enough to rattle his old legs.

"You're not getting away," Juuzou smiled sweetly, before his lips twisted into a maniacal grin.

 

The Owl threw Juuzou back, Juuzou himself laughing as it happened, using 13's Jason to keep himself balanced. Shinohara caught his leg as he leapt further back to avoid a possible charge towards himself. 

"Throw me back, just like this!" he instructed, Shinohara gritting his teeth, but nodding nonetheless, throwing him forwards.

Juuzou hit down again and again, finally landing on the ground on the other side after he'd sufficiently done enough damage. More of the amber thingies were fired, exploding again and again. Everyone charged forwards right at that moment, the combination finally enough to subdue the Owl.

 

_"I can't stand not being able... to do anything anymore," Kaneki muttered, hair having turned completely white from the stress caused by Yamori's torture._

_"Is this okay, Manager?" Annabeth asked, handing him a cup of coffee._

_"Manager!"_

_"Manager!"_

_"Annoying old man!"_

_"Manager!"_

_"Yoshimura-san," a bow._

_"Thank you, Manager."_

_A face beaming up at him, Hinami smiling as she held a mask that matched Shooting Star Wing, or.. Loser._

_"School?! Why should I?"_

 

_"Are you trying to start something with me, knowing I'm the Devil Ape?"_

_A wink._

 

_"Don't talk to me like you know me. I'll kill you."_

_A smile thrown over a shoulder._

 

_And there she stood, bathed in the light of the sun she was._

 

"Ukina..."

He collapsed, and everything went black.

 

 

**S I L L Y  L I T T L E  P A W N S  W I T H  N O  P U R P O S E**

 

 

"London bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down," she sang as she sidestepped corpses, withdrawing her kagune and readjusting her mask.

"London bridge is falling down," she leant down, bracing herself on her elbow as a small, soft hand reached over to caress the face of a young woman who looked to be in her thirties, "my fair lady."

The harsh wind blew her hood back, revealing a few strands of bright pink hair.

"I know you're here, Philotes."

Phyria and Nadette stepped out from where they'd been concealed behind the wall of a building, their light footsteps seeming like drumsticks on drumsticks in the silence.

Like ashes, they burned.

 

 

**O N E - E Y E D**

 

 

Everyone was cheering.

And then it happened.

Swooping in from the sky, the One-Eyed Owl.

There had been two.

 

Juuzou threw himself over again, body strained from the effort. He had been doing this for so long now- surely even he deserved a break, right? The Gods could at least give him that?

No, though. They could, but they didn't. Instead, he was left to suffer.

The Owl giggled, moving it's arm just in time to swipe his leg clean off. He tumbled to the ground, throwing himself further away. Shinohara was at his side immediately, telling him that the medic squad would be here soon. He didn't understand though. Medic squad? He felt no pain.

"I can keep fighti-."

"No."

The Owl, who had previously just been watching their exchange with mild interest, made it's move, sending it's oversized ukaku darts into the arata. Shinohara's eyes widened for a moment, and he collapsed next to Juuzou, a true defense indeed.

Juuzou stared, the world seeming to have just... stopped. There was nothing. Everything was frozen.

Finally, beginning to process what had happened, he let out a long, piercing scream.

Suzuya ran up again and again, throwing his quinque steel knives and forcing himself forwards on one leg. Maneuvering around the Owl, he found himself completely unable to use his usual methods of attacking. It swatted him away, the force knocking him into the building behind him. He pulled himself up, having somehow kept his grip on 13's Jason the entire time, before collapsing forwards, unconscious, an arm slung under him slowly lowering his unconscious body to the hard ground.

The Owl grinned.

"You came."

 

 

  **H E  I S  N O T  O N E  O F  U S**

 

 

"Hey," Thalia smirked, slinking around the corner of a building and in front of squad B, having left the remains of her half of the Hunters with Lise a while back.

"Thalia?" Nico asked, delighted to see her again.

"Sup?"

"Death, destruction, and whatever else."

"Same."

The group and the Huntress walked around for a while, Thalia keeping a close eye on Jason.

 _Waiting,_  Reyna decided.  _She was waiting._

_But... for what?_

 

**K E N**

 

 

Touka carried Amon, Hide supporting Kaneki as the half-ghoul counted down, oblivious to his surroundings. They were in the sewers, on their way to V14. Eventually, seeing light ahead, Hide stopped.

Touka was about to yell at him, but paused as well, seeing a glimpse of a person standing out there.

One person in specific.

Hide turned to her, a smile on his face that she just  _knew_ meant he was going to do something stupid.

"Touka-chan," he muttered, holding out his arm, "would you do me the favors?"

"What are you about to do?"

He leaned in, whispering into her ear. Her eyes widened.

 

Kaneki Ken stepped out into the light, eyes filled with fear as he faced his opponent.

 

Arima Kishou.

 

The CCG's very own Shinigami.

 

 

_Strangely, he thought him to be beautiful._

 

 

**L I K E  A  S H A D O W**

  

 

When it happened, it happened faster than any of them could've processed. Reyna was knocked aside, held in place by the heavy metal boxes collapsed around her, unable to do a thing until she managed to free herself. No, those weren't what held her in place. What held her in place were Jason's eyes. They were the eyes of the Cotton Candy ghoul.

He turned towards the son of Hades, picking a broken quinque from the ground. _Kura._ He crossed over the space between them quickly, watching as Nico's unease grew.

"U-umm, Jason...? What are you..?"

Jason raised the quinque above his head, bringing it down to slice the ravenette in half.

 _ **"Nico!"**_ Thalia screeched, raising her shield and running towards the di Angelo. A pair of arms wrapped themselves tightly around her, holding her back and preventing her from stopping her brother.

 _"No, nonono,"_ she sobbed, flailing about, tears streaming down her face.

She landed punch after punch, but Percy, having abandoned his own squad after she'd sent message of what she suspected, wouldn't falter so long as a moment. The only moment she'd have needed. Jason brought down the broken half of Kura towards Nico's head, mentally screaming for it all to _stop_ as his body moved on it's own. Nico trembled, before taking a step back and fading into the shadows for the last time.

**_"Nico!"_ **

Her brother shifted and smiled gently at her pathetic form as she collapsed, before turning and walking off into the distance.

A CCG helicopter flew overhead, hovering for a long moment above the burning Anteiku. Thalia freed an arm and backarmed Percy across the head, eyes widening as quinque steel bullets rained down onto her, her own body becoming an unintentional shield for the child of the Sea.

She fell, hair blowing across his vision, blocking the flames as the consumed Anteiku.

 _"T-Thal.. ia..."_ he whispered, as she fell to the ground in front of him, face against the cement, her eyes blank and unseeing.

"Hey," a hand came to rest on his shoulder, and he hardly recognized the voice of the voice of the Roman Praetor in the background.

Reyna clutched Jason's broken glasses, sinking to the ground next to Percy and engulfing him in a hug, tears streaming down their faces as the son of Poseidon broke down, finally cracking under the pressure of what had become of his life.

 

 

**E N D I N G  V E R S E**

 

 

A lone figure stood watch, closing her eyes as she sunk to her knees in the midst of the bodies scattered about like flowers cut from their roots. Her hand came to rest on a mop of white hair, her other combing through the dried-up golden locks of the sun god's son. 

_Why...? Why...?_

_"School, huh? I would have liked to have gone, myself," Irimi smiled as she dried off a plate that had just been washed._

_Why are they all...?_

_"You think my tie looks like sewer sludge? That's cruel, Touka-chan," Koma laughed._

_Why are they all going away?_

_Annabeth, Jason, and Hazel were laughing as they attempted to brew coffee, failing epically each time, to Touka's disappointment._

The three continued running.

_"Touka-chan," the Manager turned to her._

_It's all going away._

_"Kirishima-san, would you like to share my lunch with me?" Yoriko smiled, eyes closed._

_My promise to Yoriko..._

_"Touka-chan, what are your dreams for the future?"_

_The two were holding umbrellas, standing on a bridge as the snow fell from the sky._

_The formulas I worked so hard to memorize..._

_"Be sure to tell me someday."_

_All of it..._

_"A coffee shop? You mean like Anteiku?"_

_All of it..._

_"Let's kill him, aniki!" Ayato was grinning behind her._

_"Old Man Yoshimura will scold us again," she replied, but joined in nonetheless._

_All of it..._

_"You two would make great appetizers," Tsukiyama grinned, kagune sliding around his arm to form a blade._

She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, then:

_All of it's going away._

_The Anteiku workers, as well as Itori and Uta, were all gathered to celebrate Hinami's birthday._

_I can't take it..._

_The Hunters of Artemis were gathered around one of the tables as they all played a game of cards at 2AM._

_I can't take it anymore..._

_Not anyone else..._

She unleashed her kagune with a screech, running out to her inevitable death. A pale hand reached out from the shadows behind, a scream worthy only of the son of the Underworld.

 

 

_"Will..." he whispered, tears flying up from his eyes as he fell into the dark abyss, "I'm sorry."_


End file.
